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Crisis in Belarus

Russia’s expanded clout in Belarus dangerous for Ukraine — foreign minister

The Ukrainian top diplomat said the only turn the situation would take was strengthening of Russia

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba

© REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko

KIEV, September 3. /TASS/. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba sees Russia’s expanded clout in Belarus as a threat to Ukraine.

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He noted that there is only one scenario of how the situation would develop: "strengthening of Russia." "The Belarusian-Ukrainian border should not become a vulnerable zone. This can happen if Belarus is absorbed by Russia within the Union State. Or if a person under full control of the Kremlin comes into power there. Or if [Belarusian President Alexander] Lukashenko stays in power, but becomes so weak that he won’t be able to say no to Russia," he said in an interview with Ukraine’s online news outlet Gazeta.ua, adding that Lukashenko had paid heed to Moscow, and not Kiev, on the issue of Russian nationals detained in Belarus.

On July 29, 32 Russian citizens were apprehended near Minsk, and one more was detained in southern Belarus. In his address to the nation and the parliament on August 4, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said the Russians were deliberately deployed to his country. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the claims that Russia might have sent its citizens to Belarus to destabilize the situation in the republic.

For its part, Ukraine claimed that 28 detained citizens had taken part in military activity in Donbass, with pending criminal proceedings launched against them in Ukraine.

On August 14, Minsk handed over the detained citizens to Moscow. Russian Ambassador to Minsk Dmitry Mezentsev later stated that the Russians had been returned in strict correspondence with the norms of international law, stressing that professional cooperation between the country’s prosecution bodies helped carry out this legal procedure.

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