{"id":15074,"date":"2024-10-23T21:27:50","date_gmt":"2024-10-23T21:27:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/north-korea-troops-in-ukraine-would-escalate-conflict-lukashenko-tells-bbc\/"},"modified":"2024-10-23T21:27:50","modified_gmt":"2024-10-23T21:27:50","slug":"north-korea-troops-in-ukraine-would-escalate-conflict-lukashenko-tells-bbc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/north-korea-troops-in-ukraine-would-escalate-conflict-lukashenko-tells-bbc\/","title":{"rendered":"North Korea troops in Ukraine would escalate conflict, Lukashenko tells BBC"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Alexander Lukashenko says North Korea troops in Ukraine would escalate conflict<\/figcaption><\/p>\n
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There aren\u2019t many world leaders who\u2019ve been in power for 30 years.<\/p>\n

Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus has been accused of stealing elections, crushing dissent and dismantling democracy.<\/p>\n

The UK, the EU and the US do not recognise him as the legitimate president of Belarus.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s something else you should know about him: if there\u2019s any leader who knows Vladimir Putin inside out, it is Lukashenko. The two men have known each other for years and meet regularly.<\/p>\n

Alexander Lukashenko met me on the sidelines of the Brics summit of emerging economies. He wants Belarus to become a member.<\/p>\n

I asked him to comment on claims that North Korea had sent troops to fight alongside Russia in Ukraine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cRubbish,\u201d Lukashenko replied. \u201cKnowing his character Putin would never try to persuade another country to involve its army in Russia\u2019s special operation in Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if the reports are confirmed?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be a step towards the escalation of the conflict if the armed forces of any country, even Belarus, were on the contact line,\u201d replied Alexander Lukashenko.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if we got involved in the war this would be a path to escalation. Why? Because you, the Anglo-Saxons, would immediately say that another country had got involved on one side… so Nato troops would be deployed to Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Alexander<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Alexander Lukashenko said claims of North Korean troops sent to fight in Ukraine were “rubbish”<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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I ask him whether Vladimir Putin has ever asked Lukashenko to provide Belarussian troops for the Kremlin\u2019s war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

\u201cNever. Neither he, nor [former Defence Minister] Sergei Shoigu, nor the current Defence Minister Andrei Belousov has ever raised that question.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Belarus has played a part in Russia\u2019s war. In February 2022 Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine was launched, partly, from Belarusian territory. Why did the country\u2019s leader allow the Kremlin to do that?<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do you know I gave permission for Belarusian territory to be used?\u201d Lukashenko asks me.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause Belarusian territory was used [for the invasion].\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were exercises going on involving several thousand Russian soldiers. Putin started withdrawing these troops from where they were in southern Belarus, down a road, along the border with Ukraine. <\/p>\n

“At one point he redirected some of these troops to Kyiv. I\u2019m sure they\u2019d been provoked. It\u2019s up to Putin how he withdraws his troops. Via Kyiv. Or he could have gone through Minsk.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDidn\u2019t you call Putin to ask what was going on?\u201d I ask.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo. He didn\u2019t call me. And I didn\u2019t call him. These are his troops and he has the right to move them out whichever way he likes.\u201d<\/p>\n

That comment reflects the degree of influence the Kremlin has in neighbouring Belarus.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"EPAEPA<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Lukashenko was given an honour by Vladimir Putin at a meeting earlier this month<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Another example: Russia has stationed tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs Putin ready to use those weapons in the war in Ukraine?\u201d I ask.<\/p>\n

\u201cPutin will never use the weapons stationed in Belarus without the Belarusian president\u2019s consent,\u201d Lukashenko tells me.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you ready to allow the use of nuclear weapons?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m completely ready, otherwise why have these weapons? But only if the boot of one [foreign] soldier steps into Belarus. We have no plans to attack anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Human rights groups estimate there are currently 1,300 political prisoners in Belarus.<\/p>\n

Alexander Lukashenko had previously told me there were none.<\/p>\n

But speaking to me today (perhaps inadvertently) he used the phrase \u201cpolitical prisoner\u201d, when speaking about the small number freed in recent months. <\/p>\n

Some commentators have interpreted the releases as a message from Lukashenko to the West that he seeks better relations.<\/p>\n

He denies that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe freed political prisoners on humanitarian grounds,\u201d he says. \u201cThey were mostly elderly people and the sick. That\u2019s all.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is no step towards improving relations with you. If you don\u2019t want relations with us, that\u2019s fine. We\u2019ll get by without you.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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Alexander Lukashenko says North Korea troops in Ukraine would escalate conflict There aren\u2019t many world leaders who\u2019ve been in power for 30 years. Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus has been accused of stealing elections, crushing dissent and dismantling democracy. The UK, the EU and the US do not recognise him as the legitimate president of Belarus. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15075,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15074"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15074\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15076,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15074\/revisions\/15076"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}