French President Emmanuel Macron asked, on Sunday, his Belarusian counterpart Aleksandr Lukashenko not to let his country get involved in Russia's war against Ukraine, during a telephone conversation, AFP informs, citing people close to the French president.
President Macron “underlined the risks that exist for Belarus if it allows itself to be drawn into Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine. At the same time, he invited Aleksandr Lukashenko to make the necessary gestures to improve relations between Belarus and Europe,” the quoted source said.
A press release from the Minsk presidency only indicated that “the two heads of state discussed regional issues as well as Belarus' relations with the EU and with France, in particular” and that the telephone conversation took place “at the initiative of the French side”.
For several weeks, Ukraine has expressed fears of Russia's use of Belarus to launch a new offensive from the north towards the capital Kiev and has announced the strengthening of defense capacity in the border area.
At the start of the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Belarus allowed Russian troops to attack northern Ukraine from its territory in the direction of Kiev.
The phone call between Presidents Macron and Lukashenko comes after a series of massive Moscow bombings that specifically targeted the Ukrainian capital, killing at least four people and injuring over a hundred.
Russia also used the medium-range Oresnik hypersonic ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear payload, which was also deployed last year on the territory of Belarus.
Russia and Belarus held joint military exercises this week that also involved nuclear weapons, with the two countries rejecting Ukraine's accusations that Moscow was preparing Minsk's involvement in the conflict.
