MINSK, December 17. /TASS/. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said in an interview with Newsmax TV channel that he believes the conflict in Ukraine will end in peace.

"Any war ends in peace. It’s a classic. And this war will end in peace as well. The sooner it happens, the fewer people will die," he said. An excerpt from the interview was cited by the BelTA news agency.

In Lukashenko’s view, if the issue of a peaceful settlement depended solely on US President Donald Trump, then given his current policies the conflict would have ended long ago. However, he stressed that this is a multilateral process. "We [Belarus] border this conflict, and we also care about how events there will develop and how it will end. Trump alone will not resolve this issue," the Belarusian leader noted.

At the same time, the head of state considers it important to "freeze this conflict from beginning to end" — to halt hostilities in such a way that Russia would have no concerns that the pause could simply be used to rearm Ukraine. In this regard, he recalled what he described as the hypocritical position of European politicians when peace agreements on Ukraine were reached in Minsk in 2015. "They wanted to ensure that the Ukrainians, as [former German Chancellor Angela] Merkel later stated, would have time to rearm and push back against Russia. It turns out they did not come here to negotiate peace, but a future war," Lukashenko said.

The president also pointed out that certain guarantees are needed in the process of reaching agreements to ensure lasting peace. "There must be guarantees. Russia wants guarantees that this is forever. I know this. Russia wants to conclude such a peace treaty so that war never starts again," the Belarusian leader said.

Lukashenko noted that Europeans are "whispering in Vladimir Zelensky’s ear" that they will help him continue fighting. "They will not help him with anything. They do not have the resources that the United States has. And if the Americans step aside, escalation will be inevitable," he warned. According to the Belarusian president, the current leaders of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom would then realize their mistake.