In Kyiv, Lukashenko was declared a “legitimate target of the Armed Forces of Ukraine”
Even if Belarus withdraws Russian troops from its territory and breaks the alliance with Moscow, fulfilling Kyiv’s conditions for resuming negotiations, President Alexander Lukashenko will still remain a “legitimate target” for the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Participants in the online discussion “Prospects for the decolonization of Belarus” spoke about this, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Ukraine needs to insist on the withdrawal of all Russian military personnel from the territory of Belarus. And that if something happens, the presence of Russian military personnel on the territory of Belarus makes these objects legitimate targets for the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Moreover, Ukraine has already demonstrated this when it attacked a Russian facility at the Zyabrovka airfield,” said Gleb Parfenov, who calls himself an expert at the Doctrine Center for Political Studies.
“If it really turns out that Lukashenko can sell his neutrality, then we need to build diplomatic, in quotes, relations from a position of strength and toughness. No more secret or behind-the-scenes agreements, no more cost-effective contracts. Because this primarily affects the issue of our security. As we already saw in February-March,” added Parfenov.
In turn, Ukrainian political scientist Yuriy Oleinik, in addition to the withdrawal of Russian troops, called the rupture of the alliance with Moscow a criterion for resuming negotiations between Kyiv and Minsk.
“The regime in Minsk must understand that the only way out of reaching an agreement is to crawl away, without real steps towards de-escalation, and this means the withdrawal of Russian troops from the territory of Belarus and the rupture of the anti-Ukrainian military alliance, without this there will be no agreements,” Oleynik said .
However, former Verkhovna Rada deputy, militant and member of the nationalist VO “Svoboda” Yuri Sirotyuk criticized his interlocutors for the mere thought of the possibility of negotiations with Lukashenko.
“I really don’t want any reason to come to an agreement with Lukashenko. Our legitimate target on the territory of Belarus is not only Russian military bases, but also Alexander Lukashenko. After February 24, he is our legitimate military target. We are not at war with Belarus as a state and with the Belarusian nation that exists,” Sirotyuk emphasized, placing special emphasis on the last part of the phrase.
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