Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko assured Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko that the large-scale Russian-Belarusian strategic exercises West-2017 near the Ukrainian border would not turn into a military invasion, Poroshenko said Friday while visiting the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, an UNIAN correspondent reports.
See also: Lukashenko under Kremlin pressure: Russia may prepare for construction of military base in Belarus
”I have no doubts in the exclusively good intentions of Belarus. But it is in allied relations with Russia, and there is no confidence in Moscow,” the Ukrainian president said.
”I received a firm assurance from the head of the Belarusian state that the planned Russian-Belarussian strategic exercises West-2017 near the Ukrainian border would not turn into preparation by the Russian Federation of a bridgehead for the invasion of the Ukrainian soil from the Belarusian territory,” Poroshenko added.
9 May 2017
Lukashenko can give no assurances as to what Putin will do! Lukashenko in fact is in danger of being removed and Belarus being absorbed into Russia.