Lukashenka: I wasn't shouting. It was Poroshenko

Putin was involved, too.

The summit in Minsk involving the Customs Union, Ukraine and the EU was the idea of Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko, Aliaksandr Lukashenka said in an interview with Russian journalist Sergei Brilev, the host of the programme “Vesti v Subbotu” on Russia One TV channel, charter97.org learnt from the press service of the Belarusian ruler.

“I just did what everybody wanted. Poroshenko wanted to have a summit in Minsk. He would have never gone to Russia, as you understand it,” Lukashenka noted. “I wasn't shouting: Come on, come to Minsk. It was the idea of Poroshenko. The meeting would not have been held here without Putin,” he said.

The dictator again stressed Belarus was not “playing” on the situation in Ukraine. “We belong to the Slavic world. This world has gone on fire. It is painful for me. I took it close to heart,” he said. “Some begin to say it brought certain benefits for me... Absolute nonsense! We should not play on it! People are in trouble. How will we look if we begin to we pluck pieces of burning wood from this fire and use them for our own benefits?” Lukashenka says.

According to the press service Lukashenka also shared his view of how to solve the situation in Ukraine and said what measures Belarus took to mitigate some humanitarian consequences of the Ukrainian events.

Lukashenka “gave his take on the evolution of the Eurasian Union, prospects of Belarus-Russia mutually beneficial cooperation in processing and supplying agricultural in view of Russia's ban on food imports from a number of countries,” the press service notes.

The full version of the interview will be aired in the “Vesti v Subbotu” programme on Russia One on September 6.