Minsk is ready to host US, Ukrainian and Russian leaders for talks on ending Russia’s war in Ukraine, Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko said in an interview with American internet personality Mario Nawfal broadcast on Belarusian state media on Wednesday, the 5th of March, reports The Kyiv Independent.
Lukashenko’s remarks came shortly after the US suspended military aid to Ukraine, with the intention of forcing President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to start peace talks, the White House has said.
In an interview, Lukashenko said he was ready to help US President Donald Trump achieve his goal of peace between Kyiv and Moscow.
“If you want, come here,” he said, speaking to Nawfal in Minsk.
“There’s only 200 km from the Belarusian border to Kyiv. Half an hour by plane. Everyone is welcome to come. We will sit here. We will agree quietly, without noise, without shouting.
Tell Trump: I am waiting for him here, along with Putin and Zelenskyy. We will sit down and negotiate quietly.”
Despite the invitation, Lukashenko stressed that he did not want to act as a mediator in the talks.
“Most of all, I hate being a mediator. It means standing between someone and pretending that you can do something,” he said.
Belarus previously hosted talks between Ukraine, Russia and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in 2014 and 2015, which led to the Minsk agreements. These agreements were aimed at stopping the Donbas war, which was triggered by Russia’s invasion of eastern Ukraine in 2014.
Russia violated both agreements. Two days before the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Putin announced that the Minsk agreements “no longer exist”.
During an Oval Office meeting with Trump and US Vice President JD Vance, Zelenskyy mentioned that Russia had violated previous agreements, trying to explain the importance of security guarantees for Ukraine. Trump and Vance reacted to this by berating Zelenskyy and accusing him of being ungrateful for the aid provided by the US. A few days later, the US suspended military aid to Ukraine.
BNN reported that Trump made little mention of the decision in his address to the US Congress, but said he intended to work with both sides to stop the war in Ukraine. He said Ukraine was finally ready to come to the negotiating table.
Belarus remains a staunch Kremlin ally. Although it has not engaged its own troops on the battlefield in Ukraine, it allowed the Russian military to make extensive use of its territory and infrastructure during the launch of the full-scale invasion