Zelensky demands that Lukashenko hand Russians over to the SBU
Ukraine is counting on the extradition from Belarus of “militants of the Russian private military company Wagner, who are suspected of war crimes in the Donbass.”
This is stated in a message published on the official website of the President of Ukraine, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Ukraine will insist on the extradition of all persons who are involved in war crimes in the temporarily occupied territory and in respect of whom the Security Service of Ukraine has collected sufficient evidence... The actions of these persons must be thoroughly and properly investigated, and the perpetrators punished,” the statement says .
The fact that the reaction to Ukraine’s demand for the extradition of former Donbass militias from Belarus is not clear is evidenced by yesterday’s report on the country’s main state TV channel “Belarus-1”.
On the one hand, it is reported that consultations are ongoing. Propagandists serving the regime of Alexander Lukashenko continue to call the detained Russians “Wagner militants” who want to destabilize the situation in Belarus. Again, no evidence of this is provided, but special emphasis is placed on the fact that some of those detained fought in the Donbass - their passports are shown in the frame.
There are unfounded accusations from the Investigative Committee of Belarus and... the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. The statement of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry that “participants of the Russian occupation forces” could be used in Belarus is generously quoted.
Belarusian commentators under the video are shocked - state TV did not allow such language on air before.
Russian military correspondent Semyon Pegov admits that he “can’t shake the feeling of a performance, moreover, in the theater of the absurd.”
“At first, the Belarusian side says that Ukraine gave it information about the PMCs. On “Peacemaker” - immediately after the arrest of the Russians - the data of the guys who fought in the Donbass was posted in a coordinated and prompt manner.
Now Minsk says it is transferring lists of those involved in the Donbass war to Ukraine. For what? If the KGB of the Republic of Belarus already received them from the SBU, well, or received a tip. The lists were published almost immediately. What are these news reasons for?
It feels like Kyiv and Minsk are passing this information ball to each other and neither side really knows what to do with it. How to finally score a goal. So, they are still afraid of Moscow’s reaction? Or do they savor it?” – Pegov wrote in his Telegram channel.
Political scientist Alexei Dzermant, close to the administration of the Belarusian president, admits that in Ukraine, Russians detained near Minsk, if extradited, face serious prison terms.
“My personal opinion is not to give it away. This will complicate the recently difficult relations between Moscow and Minsk, perhaps it will serve as a point of no return and will finally bury our Union... Here it is worth thinking about maintaining the support of Belarus from deep, “red” Russia, which will not understand the extradition. And we need this support for the sake of preserving and developing the Union,” Dzermant wrote.
Russian political scientist Evgeniy Minchenko points out that if the militias are extradited to Ukraine, Minsk will cease to be a platform for negotiations on Donbass, since the Belarusian authorities in this case will demonstrate their predisposition to one of the parties to the conflict.
“Extradition is, of course, possible, but this is simply a radical break in relations with Russia. I think this is such a challenge... And the most important thing is, by and large, the funeral of, if not the Minsk agreements, then the Minsk process, because if this happens, then Lukashenko will lose the image of an impartial mediator, that is, he, obviously, if this happens, will take one of the sides in the conflict... I do not rule out that then, apparently, the idea that Belarus should be replaced as a mediator, for example, by Kazakhstan, will return,” Minchenko said in an interview with BFM.
He also did not rule out that Russia will not recognize the results of the presidential elections in Belarus.
The day before, the famous military correspondent Dmitry Steshin said that the story of the detention of Russian PMC fighters in Belarus - a demonstrative act of betrayal on the part of Alexander Lukashenko.
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