- "It can be hard, difficult, painful, but they have to do it if they want to recover," said the Belarusian president.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

Lukashenko warns Ukraine that it will suffer "total destruction" if it does not negotiate with Russia

The President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, accused the Ukrainian government on Thursday of rejecting peace talks with Russia and warned that if there is no dialogue, Ukraine risks suffering "total destruction" due to the conflict that broke out in February. .

"Everything is in the hands of Ukraine," said Lukashenko, a key ally in the conflict started by Russian President Vladimir Putin, with whom he has strengthened military collaboration in recent months, according to statements in Yerevan collected by the BelTA agency.

The Belarusian president acknowledged that, for kyiv, it can be "hard, difficult, painful", but "they have to do it if they want to recover." "Otherwise, it will lead to the total destruction of Ukraine," he said.

For Lukashenko, "peace talks are inevitable", although Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky has made it clear in recent months that he will not sit down to negotiate as long as Putin continues to pull the strings and Russia has not withdrawn its troops from Ukraine. .

The Belarusian president believes that "Europe has finally opened its eyes" and they can pressure kyiv to accept the dialogue, given that they have the war "at the gates" and that, according to him, the conflict may end up costing the position leaders like the Frenchman Emmanuel Macron or the German Olaf Scholz.

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