MINSK, October 22. /TASS/. Neither Belarus nor Russia needs a war in the western direction, President of the republic Alexander Lukashenko told Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov.

He said that Belarus is fulfilling its obligations to protect the borders of the Union State.

Lukashenko also thanked Russia for its assistance in organizing monitoring with the use of various technical means along the borders of the Union State, as well as those with Ukraine and Western countries.

TASS has compiled the key statements made by the president of Belarus.

The need to avoid war

Neither Minsk nor Moscow wants a war on their western borders: "We are preparing for war, but we are trying to avoid it in every possible way; neither we nor you need it. But to prevent it from happening, we must always be ready. This is why our joint forces in the western direction will always be needed, and it is in order today."

Border protection

Belarus adheres to its obligations to protect the borders of the Union State: "The Belarusian army is fulfilling its role. We are fulfilling all our obligations from the Russian side to Belarus and from Belarus to Russia.

"Our opponents - we probably don't have any enemies here yet - they know about it, they see it. We have good cooperation in other departments and areas. This is why you don’t need to worry about our obligations to protect the borders of the Union State.".

Belarus is grateful to Russia for its assistance in organizing monitoring using various technical equipment along the borders of the Union State and along the borders with Ukraine and Western countries: "And you have them [such means], given the conflict in Ukraine, very advanced. Radars and the like. Russian experience was taken into account, and there are many Russian tools."

The Union State controls the entire territory along the border: "And that’s about 3,000 km, if you take the West and Ukraine into account. Of course, it must be protected by control and surveillance systems. We’re doing a good job here."

Contacts with Putin

Control of the Union State’s borders with Ukraine and the West was discussed with Russian President Vladimir Putin: "President Putin and I have recently considered this topic at a meeting. He did a good job, he made a promise, he said: ‘We’ll help you with this, we’ll help you with that.’ We’ll need that. And we see that we do need it."