Ukraine's Foreign Ministry threatens Lukashenko with consequences for meeting DPR leader

In particular, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly condemns Lukashenko's meeting with a representative of the Russian authorities in the occupied part of Donetsk region.

“This meeting is yet another confirmation that the position of the current Belarusian authorities on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine is dictated solely by the Kremlin's instructions and has nothing to do with international law or the international obligations of the Republic of Belarus,” the statement reads.

Ukraine also rejects Lukashenko's hypocritical rhetoric about the “principles” of cooperation with the temporarily occupied territories and considers it support for the war.

“We call on the Belarusian people to realize that against the backdrop of repeated contacts between Belarusian officials and Russian puppets from our temporarily occupied territories, Alexander Lukashenko's constant statements about his 'warm feelings' for the 'brotherly Ukrainian people' sound like a mockery, and his practical actions destroy the principles on which relations between the Ukrainian and Belarusian peoples were built,” the Foreign Ministry said.

These unfriendly actions cannot be left without a proper response and will have negative consequences for Ukrainian-Belarusian relations, the ministry added.
Earlier this week, Lukashenko hosted Pushylin in his administration after a meeting with the leadership of the CIS election authorities. According to the Belarusian leader, he did not refuse to cooperate with the occupation authorities in Donetsk.

In August, Lukashenko allegedly announced the deployment of a third of his army to the Ukrainian border. The Ukrainian side did not record any particular movement of equipment and personnel of the Belarusian forces.

And this week, Lukashenko fantasized that his country could become a place of escalation in the war between Ukraine and Russia.