(Dan Tri) – Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said that Russia once offered Ukraine a long-term lease of the Crimea peninsula when Moscow and Kiev negotiated with the intermediary Minsk.
Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko (Photo: Reuters).
According to RT, President Lukashenko revealed on June 14 that Russia had offered financial compensation to Ukraine over the Crimea issue, when the two countries participated in peace negotiations mediated by Minsk.
Mr. Lukashenko said that Russian President Vladimir Putin once showed him a draft proposal that was temporarily accepted by Moscow and Kiev at that time.
`It was a good proposal, but the Ukrainian side did not accept it,` he said, without specifying when Russia made the proposal or detailed terms related to Crimea.
Belarus has acted as a mediator between Russia and Ukraine for many years, and hosted negotiations in 2014 and 2015 that led to the signing of the Minsk agreement regarding the Donbass region.
After hostilities between the two sides broke out last year, several rounds of peace talks were held in Belarus, but later talks were held in Istanbul, Türkiye.
Before Russia annexed Crimea following a referendum in 2014, Moscow paid Kiev an annual rent to use Sevastopol as a base for its Black Sea Fleet.
Belarus is a close ally of Russia and has allowed Moscow to use its territory for its military campaign against Ukraine.
In March, Russia announced that it would place a number of tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus at Mr. Lukashenko’s request to deal with security threats from the West.
In the interview, Mr. Lukashenko said that what the West is most worried about is the scenario of a large-scale conflict, or even a nuclear disaster.
He affirmed that Minsk does not want and is also very worried about that scenario happening.
According to Mr. Lukashenko, Russia can use nuclear weapons if its territory is invaded or if an action threatens Russia’s existence.
According to him, even when the conflict in Ukraine ends, the West is still seen as a threat.
`The fighting in Ukraine will eventually end, because the preconditions for that scenario have been set, but the West will continue to create countless problems for us in the future,` he accused, warning.