MINSK, August 17. /TASS/. The West is not interested in ending hostilities in Ukraine, Secretary of the Belarusian Security Council Alexander Volfovich said.

"We see how painfully the Western leaders and politicians, regrettably, react to issues linked to ending or suspending combat operations in the course of the special military operation. They are not interested in this. We see the jingoist policy flourishing in Poland and in the Baltic countries, especially in Lithuania," he said in an interview with the STV television channel.

Commenting on the Friday phone call between the Belarusian and US presidents, Alexander Lukashenko and Donald Trump ahead of the Russia-US summit in Alaska, he said, "It was an utter surprise for everyone, especially for our opponents in the West, our neighbors in Poland and the Baltic states." "Well, Trump is a wide politician after all, since he called our president ahead of such an important political event," he noted.

"What has happened in Alaska, I think a big step was made both by America and Russia, and by Belarus. Belarus has always sought to end combat operation, hostilities in Ukraine as soon as possible," he added.

On August 15, a meeting between Russian and US Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump took place at a military base in Alaska. The rendezvous lasted about three hours: there was a one-on-one discussion in the American leader's limousine on the way to the main venue for the talks and a narrow "three-on-three" meeting. The Russian side was also represented by Presidential aide Yury Ushakov and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, while the American side was represented by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff.

In a statement to the press following the talks, Putin said that the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict was the main topic of the summit. The Russian leader also called for turning the page in bilateral relations and returning to cooperation, and invited Trump to Moscow. For his part, the US president announced the progress made in the talks, but noted that the parties had not managed to reach agreement.