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Military operation in Ukraine

Ukrainian conflict may still be stopped; it should be averted earlier, says Lukashenko

Lukashenko added that he was actively participating in attempts to settle the conflict in southeastern Ukraine from the very outset

MINSK, August 18. /TASS/. Avoiding the conflict on the territory of Ukraine was previously possible and there are still ways to settle it out, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Thursday.

"It was a must and should do [to avoid the conflict]. At any moment. It can be stopped now and it was possible to avert it back then," Lukashenko said in an interview with Ukrainian journalist Diana Panchenko. The video of the interview was posted on her YouTube channel.

Lukashenko added that he was actively participating in attempts to settle the conflict in southeastern Ukraine from the very outset. The president added that the Minsk agreements envisaged a special status for certain areas of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions and local elections there. However, the Kiev government dodged the implementation of these provisions. Moreover, Pyotr Poroshenko, who was the president of Ukraine back then, also personally opposed them.

He said he had offered to organize elections in the areas outside the Kiev government’s control. In his words, Russian President Vladimir Putin gave his consent, but Poroshenko turned down the proposal.

"The Minsk agreements [have already been signed]. Everything was agreed upon. The Minsk Accords should have been implemented, but they weren’t. And, as I understand, no one even planned to put them into practice," Lukashenko continued.

When asked whether Russia was ready to implement its part of the agreement, Lukashenko replied: [I’m] 100% [sure of it]. There are no reasons for you to claim that it was not going to, you have no facts to prove these allegations. At the same time, there is plenty of facts indicating that Ukraine did not fulfill its own part of the Minsk deal," he added.

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Ukraine Belarus Alexander Lukashenko Military operation in Ukraine

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