Belarus’ authoritarian president Alexander Lukashenko has claimed he is doing “everything” to stop Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.
In a sit-down interview with the Associated Press, Mr Lukashenko said that he did not expect Russia’s invasion of the country to drag on for so long.
Mr Lukashenko is a longstanding ally of the Kremlin and his regime receives financial and political support from the Russian president.
“I am not immersed in this problem enough to say whether it goes according to plan, like the Russians say, or like I feel it,” he told the news agency at the Independence Palace in Minsk.
“I want to stress one more time, I feel like this operation has dragged on.”
However, he stopped short of criticising Moscow and claimed that Ukraine was “provoking Russia”.
"We categorically do not accept any war,” he said. “We have done and are doing everything now so that there isn't a war.
“Thanks to yours truly, me that is, negotiations between Ukraine and Russia have begun.”
Mr Lukashenko also repeated Moscow’s unfounded claim that Kyiv was “not interested” in peace negotiations.
Russia deployed forces to Belarusian territory under the pretext of military drills and then sent them rolling into Ukraine as part of the invasion that began on February 24.
Mr Lukashenko has previously thrown his support behind the operation, alleging at a meeting with Mr Putin in early March that Ukraine planned to attack Belarus and that Moscow's offensive prevented that.
He said he brought a map to show Putin from where the alleged attack was supposed to take place, but offered no other evidence to back the claim.
Earlier this week, Belarusian military announced snap drills that raised concerns in Ukraine. However, Mr Lukashenko denied that the drills represented a threat.
“We do not threaten anyone and we are not going to threaten and will not do it. Moreover, we can't threaten - we know who opposes us, so to unleash some kind of a conflict, some kind of war here in the West is absolutely not in the interests of the Belarusian state. So the West can sleep peacefully.”
Mr Lukashenko’s support for the war has prompted the west to impose sanctions on Belarus, with Minsk and Moscow warning they would “jointly oppose any attempts to slow down the development of our countries or to isolate them artificially from the global economy”.
He said that Mr Putin likely “did not want a global confrontation with Nato” despite the escalation of tensions between Russia and the military alliance.
