Bogdan Yaremenko: Ukraine Needs To Change Its Policy Regarding Lukashenka

In the sphere of security and defense, it is impossible to understand where Belarus ends and Russia begins.

A conflict is brewing between the neighboring countries — Ukraine and Belarus don’t seem to get along well lately. Official Minsk declared First Secretary of the Ukrainian Embassy Ihor Skvortsov persona non grata over alleged coordinating the intelligence activity of Ukrainian journalist Pavlo Sharoiko, who had been previously arrested in Belarus for espionage. According to the official representative of the KGB of Belarus Dzmitry Pabiarzhyn, Sharoiko admitted that he was an employee of the military intelligence staff and worked undercover.

“He also confirmed that his intelligence activities were coordinated by officer of the Chief Bureau of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine Ihor Skvortsov, who acted under the cover of the advisor at Ukraine’s Embassy to Belarus. For the activities not compatible with the diplomatic status Skvortsov was announced a persona non grata,” — Dzmitry Pabiarzhyn noted.

After that, at the request of the Belarusian side, Ukraine revoked Ihor Skvortsov from Minsk. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry took symmetrical steps, responding to the unfriendly actions of the Belarusians — they also announced one of the employees of the Embassy of Belarus to Ukraine persona non grata.

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, for its part, guided by the principle of reciprocity, decided to send the representative of the Belarusian Embassy away from the country. As of now, he has already stopped working and left our country, " — said spokesperson for the MFA Mariana Betsa.

Experts told Glavred how to perceive such actions of Belarus, which, on the one hand, tried to demonstrate its willingness to cooperate with Ukraine, offered its peacekeepers to resolve the conflict in the Donbas, and on the other hand it began to implement frankly unfriendly steps and demonstrated pro-Russian views (in particular, this was manifested during the recent vote of the UN General Assembly on Crimea, when Belarus voted against). In addition, the experts explained how this situation could affect the Ukrainian-Belarusian relations, as well as the role of Russia in this incident.

Diplomat, Director of the "Maidan of Foreign Affairs" Foundation Bogdan Yaremenko:

Now the relations between Ukraine and Belarus are aggravated by the situation that began as a result of what happened during the West-2017 exercises, after the detention of Pavlo Hryb in Belarus. All these events, of course, forced Ukrainian special services to step in and try to understand what is happening at the territory of Belarus, which quite frankly turned into a springboard for the aggression against Ukraine.

The Belarusian side is trying to shift the blame on somebody else - to create an image of aggressive and hostile Ukrainian special services that are engaged in subversive activities at the territory of Belarus. This is done in order to hide the essence and content of the current Belarusian regime.

For us, all this looks rather strange for only one reason. Because for almost four years, after Maidan, the Ukrainian authorities tried to flirt with Lukashenka, pretending that, thus they were tearing him away from Russia. Of course, all these were very naive plans, more precisely - not plans, but attempts to cover up true intentions and interest in trade with Belarus.

Obviously, this was the main interest of the Ukrainian authorities.

Now it will be necessary to change the attitude towards Belarus, to pursue a more pragmatic foreign policy, which would be based on the realization that in its present state Belarus can not resist the influence of Russia, and, therefore, is hostile towards Ukraine.

Today, in the part that concerns the security and defense of Belarus, it is already impossible to separate where Belarus ends and Russia begins. All this is not hostile actions of the Russian special services, but the implementation of agreements between these states, because they are allies. Therefore, the Russians act on the territory of Belarus against Ukraine with the knowledge of the Belarusian authorities. This is part of the terms of the game between them, which is fixed at the level of agreements. Therefore, all these actions, of course, are connected with Russia.

Lukashenka himself has no reasons and motives to spoil relations with Ukraine. But this does not depend on him. He is absolutely not an independent figure. The essence of his policy is to maintain his own rule and regime. And this he can do, only relying on the resources that he receives from Russia. Therefore, in the future, the Russians will determine the policy of Belarus, first of all, in relations with Ukraine.