Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashko began an urgent meeting because of the situation in Ukraine. This is reported by the Belarusian media.
"The situation on the perimeter of the western and southern borders has changed," Lukashenko said.
According to him, Belarusian troops are not taking any part in the Russian "special operation" in Ukraine.
Lukashenko recounted his conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the situation in Ukraine.
"He informed me in great detail about the situation and, most importantly, about the development of this situation. As he said, the purpose of the operation is unambiguous: it is to stop the genocide of the people in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions," Lukashenko said.
According to him, he "personally suggested that Putin leave some Russian armed forces" in southern Belarus.
"We were not ready to cover the southern direction in this situation, because Ukrainian units - military, not border units - moved to the border and started conducting maneuvers there. We saw that, but we never had any troops there. Therefore, I suggested that some small part of the Russian troops be left there on the southern borders until we can replace them with our own Armed Forces," Lukashenko said.
He said that "Ukrainians, the leadership and politicians of Ukraine" should "once again" draw conclusions and understand "that these issues should be resolved at the negotiating table" and that it did not mean "that we were preparing some kind of war against Ukraine there."
