Negotiations With Putin On The Territory Of Belarus Is A Betrayal

Don't make a mistake.

Dear and dearest Ukrainians!

This is a very painful time for you. It is impossible to even read about the suffering you are going through. We do not sleep at night, we follow your fearless struggle against the Russian fascists in order to somehow take over some of your pain.

Your heroism, resilience, courage are amazing and give hope to us, Belarusians.

Reproaches directed against Belarusians break through your pain from time to time. Until today, it was completely understandable and explainable, and it was not worth discussing and commenting on.

But today, your President Zelensky made an appeal that concerned us.

For some reason, Volodymyr Zelensky decided to blame the Belarusian people for all the sins, the nation that in the vast majority not only supports but also helps Ukraine and the Ukrainians, as best they can.

The ending of his speech was especially shocking: “I sincerely wish Belarus to become that kind and safe Belarus again, which everyone saw not so long ago.”

Does this mean that there were great times for President Zelensky when the dictatorship in Belarus had been beating, killing and torturing civilians?

I won’t even give details of your support for the dictatorship in Belarus and the distraught dictator Lukashenka, but the support is still significant: the turnover is growing, sanctions are not being imposed against the dictatorship.

I will not pay attention to the fact that even in the midst of the violence unleashed by the distraught Lukashenka during peaceful protests against his regime, you did not have the courage to meet at a high level with representatives of the opposition and express your attitude towards the dictatorship in Belarus.

So in his address, President Zelensky blames only the citizens of Belarus, who, I repeat, overwhelmingly support Ukraine. Not one word, not half a word of condemnation has been issued against the criminal who contributed to the unleashing of the bloody war against Ukraine and takes an active part in it.

After this appeal, it became clear to me what would happen next.

There will be a great betrayal of both Ukrainians and us.

Unfortunately, this is what we are seeing now. President Zelensky, despite his assurances, accepted Putin's ultimatum to negotiate.

Again, as in 2014, the place for negotiations, or rather just another trap, was organised by Putin, using the illegitimate Lukashenka for this.

Putin has no plans for de-escalation and a negotiated settlement.

Putin plans to continue the killing of Ukrainians and the constant humiliation of Ukraine. The illegitimate Lukashenka best serves these plans, especially when it comes to humiliation.

In recent days, many Ukrainians urged Belarusians on social networks not to be silent, to take to the streets and protest against the war. Sometimes these calls sounded too demanding, with a note of irritation, the same with President Zelensky's address. It did not occur to any of the callers that they had been inviting to an uprising in a concentration camp set up in Belarus by Lukashenka, including through the help of all the previous governments and current government of Ukraine.

Despite the threat to life, Belarusians today came out against the war, not an abstract one, but the war waged by Russia in Ukraine. Came out to support Ukraine. The number of people arrested, brutally and cowardly, already ran into the hundreds.

Meanwhile, the official delegation of Ukraine goes to Belarus by orders of Putin and Lukashenka, to the territory of thousands of political prisoners, which is under the occupation of the Putin-Lukashenka group.

I won't call for anything.

I won't be able to stop the betrayal if such a decision has already been made by the president's office.

I just want to say, dear Ukrainians, no politicians, friends of Lukashenka, will prevent me from loving Ukraine.

And our and your future is to become free European states.

Andrei Sannikov, the leader of the European Belarus civil campaign, Facebook