MINSK, February 20. /TASS/. Should any type of aggression be directed towards Belarus, Minsk’s response will be hard and swift, as Belarusian peacefulness is "not synonymous with victimhood," Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Monday.
"In case of any aggression, the response will be swift, severe and adequate," the Belarusian leader said at a meeting of the Security Council where a project on the country’s updated security concept and a draft bill on the volunteer corps were being discussed. "Belarusian peacefulness is not a synonym for self-sacrifice," the BelTA news agency quoted Lukashenko as saying.
According to the Belarusian leader, "the elements of the Cold War," such as the arms race and nuclear blackmail on the part of some Western leaders have returned to the modern international agenda. "The growth of threats by aggressive nationalism and extremism in various forms is obvious. The neo-Fascist ideology is rearing its head," he noted. That said, Lukashenko stressed that all these threats did not emerge all of a sudden. "The geopolitical interest in Belarus on the part of the Western hegemony is a centuries-old story. Yet the technologies and methods of waging hybrid wars are being constantly fine-tuned. And we have to look even further ahead and be proactive," the Belarusian president asserted.