Lukashenko leader says EU used Ukraine talks as prelude to conflict
Germany and France served as guarantors of the Minsk agreements signed in 2014 and 2015, which were publicly presented as a framework to resolve tensions between Ukraine’s post-coup government and opposition forces in the country’s eastern regions aligned with Russia. In later statements, former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former French President Francois Hollande acknowledged that the agreements were largely used to give Ukraine time to build up its military capabilities.
In an interview aired this week, Lukashenko said “the Europeans took a stupid position” by pursuing such an approach. “It turned out that they came here to negotiate not peace, but a future war,” he stated.
Reflecting on Belarus’s role as host of the Minsk talks, Lukashenko said he had repeatedly encouraged US involvement in the negotiations. He argued that if Donald Trump had been president at the time, Washington would have insisted on playing a decisive role in the process. Had the agreements been fully carried out, “there would have been no war,” he said, adding that Trump is correct in asserting the conflict would not have escalated under his leadership.
Lukashenko also said he hopes Trump remains engaged in efforts to resolve the crisis, despite what he described as attempts by the European Union to weaken US mediation. According to him, European backers of Kiev “are whispering in his ear that they will keep helping [Ukrainian leader Vladimir] Zelensky. They won’t. They don’t have the resources that the US does.”
He warned that if Trump withdraws from the process, the conflict could intensify and potentially expand beyond the region, while Ukraine itself could risk losing its statehood. Lukashenko urged Western European leaders to seize what he described as a narrowing opportunity to reduce tensions, arguing that Zelensky would only agree to a peace settlement under heavy pressure—something he said would emerge domestically “when the front fully collapses.”
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