Lukashenko: "Ready to defend ourselves from the West, even with Russian nuclear weapons"

"The West wants to invade us, we have enough conventional weapons to defend ourselves against possible attacks, but if we see that there is a threat of destruction of the country we will use everything we have ".

This was stated by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in his annual address to the nation and Parliament.

And with "everything we have" Lukashenko refers to nuclear weapons : all the infrastructures to host the Russian ones are ready, and Belarus is also ready to use these weapons "to ensure its own sovereignty".

An incendiary speech by the president in office since 1994 and accused of various violations of human rights: « The third world war with nuclear fires is looming on the horizon , to solve the problem in Ukraine there is only one way. Talks without preconditions that must be started immediately ».

Lukashenko then proposed an "immediate truce on current lines" in Ukraine . "I take the risk of proposing that military activities be suspended without the parties being able to move military equipment and regroup troops."

Basically, a stop to war operations while maintaining the status quo with the occupied regions in Russian hands. The Kremlin replied that for now «nothing changes and the special military operation continues» .

A meeting between Putin and Lukashenko is scheduled for April 6. The two, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov, could discuss the proposal for a truce. But Lukashenko himself underlined that the Ukrainian counter-offensive is "extremely dangerous" for the negotiations and defined the decree signed by Zelensky as "ridiculous" which forbids by law the holding of peace negotiations.

(Unioneonline/L)