Lukashenko called Sevastopol a “Ukrainian city”
President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko reproached Russia for not paying for the deployment of two military bases on the territory of Belarus.
He stated this today in an interview with the liberal Russian radio station “Echo of Moscow,” a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
Lukashenko explained that he was dissatisfied with the state of affairs before 2014, when Russia paid Kazakhstan for the Baikonur cosmodrome, Ukraine for the Sevastopol base in Crimea, and Minsk received nothing.
“We have two high-tech military bases of the Russian Federation on the territory of Belarus. How much did you pay us for these two bases after the collapse of the Union? Zero. For Baikonur, we know, only officially you pay more than 200 million dollars. You also maintain a Ukrainian city. You don't pay us for this. Why? Because I never insisted on this. Because the defense of Belarusians and Russians is sacred. I couldn’t dare say it,” Lukashenko noted.
The President of Belarus also spoke out on the status of Crimea.
“When the Ukrainians began to attack me, I told them: de facto Russian, but this is not legally formalized. Then they started strangling me again in the square near the Verkhovna Rada. I tell them: you are not strangling me, but tell me how many Ukrainians died defending this holy Ukrainian land, as you say. Silence in response. I proceed from the real situation, and it’s up to you to make assessments: whose Crimea is, our Crimea,” Lukashenko said.
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