‘Lukashenka Crosses Red Line’
4- 21.01.2025, 10:19
- 34,724

It will not be possible to repeat the old trick.
Volodymyr Fesenko, a well-known Ukrainian political scientist, explained on ‘Usual Morning’ why Lukashenka will never again be taken seriously by the West:
- From time to time he declares that he is ready to contribute to peace. However, he won't be able to repeat the trick with the Minsk agreements. In February 2015, his ‘finest hour’ was when Merkel and then-French President Hollande came to Minsk.
However, this is no longer possible. It is possible to deceive everyone for a short time and some people always, but it will not be possible to deceive everyone all the time. In 2015, he was helped by circumstances to realise that trick. He took advantage of them.
Now the situation is quite different. In Ukraine, both the leadership and the majority of Ukrainians perceive Lukashenka's regime as an ally of Putin, as a participant in the war, albeit not directly. And this is the main thing in the attitude to the current Belarusian regime.
That is why we do not consider Belarus as a neutral ground for any future negotiations. In fact, the list of countries that offer their services for negotiations is quite long.
And Lukashenka is too odious. And what happened in 2020 - not just a violent dispersal of protests, but actually a sharp increase in the repressive nature of the regime - has become a kind of red line.
Therefore, if something changes in the attitude towards Belarus, it will be only after Lukashenka is gone. As for him, there may be fluctuations of the degree of contacts with him, but there will be no change of attitude towards him.
He will not be recognised as a proper European leader, nor will he be perceived as a peacemaker.
He is perceived as an ally of Putin, who is also responsible for this war, with sanctions against him for violating democratic standards and repression against the opposition in 2020 and later.