Ukraine, as a neighbor of Belarus and one of its main trading partners, will suffer serious losses if the situation in this country escalates.
Viktor Suslov, the former Minister of Economy of Ukraine, stated this on the NASH TV channel, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“If this situation continues, the Belarusian economy will be completely destabilized. They will begin to break trade ties. Supply disruptions may affect the Ukrainian economy, and political destabilization will also affect us. Any conflict among our neighbors will inevitably affect us.
I view what is happening in Belarus as a struggle for power. It is no coincidence that Western countries, which insist on Lukashenko's departure, do not want him to take part in new elections, because they understand that he will still win when the votes are counted. Therefore, they are interested in the legitimately elected president being removed due to the fact that he is pursuing largely pro-Russian policies.
A significant part of Russian military equipment cannot be manufactured without supplies from Belarus. It is no coincidence that it was China and Russia that were the first to recognize the elections as valid and congratulate Lukashenko, while the West does not recognize these elections. Ukraine is interested in maintaining good neighborly relations, on the one hand, but without the go-ahead from the West and the United States, we are hesitant to recognize the elections. Therefore, I think that now everything will be delayed while waiting for the crisis to be resolved,” Suslov said.