Belarus’s Lukashenko Says Ukrainian Army May ‘Decapitate’ Kiev Leadership Amid Brewing Conflict
13:32 GMT 03.06.2022 (Updated: 10:50 GMT 06.04.2023)
© AFP 2023 / UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE
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In recent weeks, multiple Ukrainian units and territorial defence battalion forces have uploaded video appeals to President Zelensky and other officials complaining about the lack of proper protective equipment and weapons, physical exhaustion and supply problems, with some declaring they would “refuse to fight” until these issues were addressed.
Minsk has information of a serious conflict brewing between the Ukrainian president and the country’s military, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has announced.
“In Ukraine, according to my information, a serious confrontation and conflict is starting between Zelensky and the Ukrainian military,” Lukashenko said, speaking to reporters on Friday, his remarks cited by the Belarusian Telegraph Agency.
“The military understands like no one else what a conflict with Russia means. Their guys are dying there. They see what they are capable of and how long they can fight. And they won’t be able to fight any longer. You see, Russia has changed its tactics,” Lukashenko said.
The Belarusian president suggested that in the near future, there would be no one left from the Ukrainian side for Russian forces to fight, with Ukraine’s territorial defence forces unable to replace the regular formations of the armed forces, and stressed that the military sees this and knows this.
Commenting on what he referred to as “dubious agreements and promises” leaders in Kiev from Poland, including alleged plans by Warsaw to “bite off” a chunk of western Ukraine for itself, Lukashenko said such talks only serve to infuriate nationalist forces inside Ukraine. “They see that [Zelensky] granted the Poles this status. What is it leading to? To biting off a chunk of the country…[Ukrainian forces] will decapitate anyone, and I’m not talking about some Nazis or not-Nazis. Listen, this is a philosophical question. I’m confident that the Ukrainian military will decapitate anyone, but especially the Nazis, as some call them, which want to have an ‘independent, free Ukraine’,” he said.
Lukashenko suggested that in the situation that is developing, there may even come a time when Ukrainians “appeal to us and to the Russians to defend Ukraine.”
The Belarusian president’s comments come amid a stream of recent video addresses uploaded by Ukrainian soldiers in recent weeks - from individual troops to entire detachments, appealing to Zelensky and Armed Forces commander-in-chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi demanding adequate weaponry, protective equipment and training, and asking that they not to be “used as cannon fodder” to fight Russian and Donbass forces. Some units have even threatened to refuse to fight until their concerns are addressed.
