Lukashenko urges Ukraine to engage in peace talks with Russia

MOSCOW

The current situation in Ukraine provides a chance to conclude a peace treaty, but if Kyiv does not engage in talks it may lose its statehood, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Thursday.

Speaking at the All-Belarusian Congress in Minsk, Lukashenko said currently the situation is favorable because neither Russia nor Ukraine can prevail at the battlefield, and such conditions are the best for starting a dialogue.

Russia launched a "special military operation" in Ukraine in February 2022. The West has since supported Kyiv through economic, military and humanitarian means.

"Ukraine needs peace today, escape of more or less healthy, sane male Ukrainians from the country in order not to get to the front is evidence of that," he said.

Lukashenko highlighted difficulties with the Western military assistance to Ukraine, noting that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy should proceed from realities and understand that his country needs peace.

"If we do not negotiate now, Ukraine will lose its statehood over time and may cease to exist. Ukraine needs peace today. We must move towards peace," he stressed.

The Istanbul agreements of 2022 may become a starting point for negotiations, this does not mean that they "will be laid as a basis" "but they are something the sides can start with and then move forward," he said.

At the same time, the so-called Zelenskyy "peace formula" "seems patriotic, but unrealistic," Lukashenko said, adding that Russia will never agree on ultimatums on paying reparations, return to the 1991 borders and court-martial its leadership.

Russia and Ukraine held a series of peace talks in March 2022 in Türkiye and even agreed on a draft of the future peace agreement. But Kyiv then changed its position and withdrew from talks.

In October 2022, Zelesnkyy signed a decree prohibiting any peace talks with Russia while Vladimir Putin serves as its president.