Terrified dictator Alexander Lukashenko has urged Russia and Ukraine to agree a peace deal to avoid the war spilling over into Belarus. 

President Lukashenko, a key ally of Vladimir Putin, said he fears Kyiv‘s troops are now planning an incursion into his nation after they launched a cross-border offensive in Russia. 

Thousands of Ukrainian soldiers smashed through Russia’s western border on August 6 in a major embarrassment for Putin’s top military brass. Now in an interview with Russia state television, Lukashenko has said that only ‘high-ranking people of American origin’ wanted the Ukraine-Russia war to continue.

The West, he said, was encouraging Kyiv to fight because it wants Ukraine and Russia to ‘destroy each other’. Russia pledged on Thursday to beef up its border defences as hundreds of thousands of people were ordered to evacuate the western Kursk region. 

Kyiv said its forces have advanced 22 miles into Russia since last week and continue to gain ground.

Lukashenko suggested in the interview, without providing evidence, that Kyiv could have plans to attack Belarus and Minsk would not allow Ukrainian troops to ‘trample on our country’. The Ukrainian military did not immediately respond to a written request for comment.

Belarusian Defence Minister Viktor Khrenin echoed Lukashenko’s comments today, saying there was a high probability of an armed provocation from neighbouring Ukraine. 

He added that the situation at their shared border ‘remains tense’, the state-run Belta news agency has reported.

‘Given the presence of Ukrainian armed formations in the border areas, there is a high probability of preparing and carrying out armed provocations on our territory, as well as high-profile actions, including with the involvement of Belarusian nationalist formations,’ Khrenin said. 

President Lukashenko has positioned himself as a main backer of Putin since the Russian president ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, part of which was staged from Belarusian soil.

But instead of allowing battles to rage on, Lukashenko has now urged talks.

‘Let’s sit down at the negotiating table and end this brawl,’ he said. 

‘Neither the Ukrainian people, nor the Russians, nor the Belarusians need it. They (the West) need it.’

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