Belarus calls for immediate talks to establish peace in Ukraine

“We, the Republic of Belarus, believe that the only chance to stop the conflict is to immediately start negotiations without any preconditions. Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko has repeatedly stated this in practically every statement he has made during the entire conflict,” the diplomat said.

Belarus presented two amendments to the draft resolution “Principles of the Charter of the United Nations underlying a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine.”

“Our first amendment aims to take the resolution out of the gray zone of half-truths, when facts are distorted in the pursuit of bright expressions. For example, the fifth paragraph of the preamble describes Russia's actions as a ‘full-scale invasion of Ukraine', which, in our view, is not true,” the Belarusian diplomat said.

He explained that if Russia had gone beyond a special military operation and carried out, as the resolution says, a ‘full-scale invasion', especially using all available military capabilities, any country could have existed for only a few hours or even minutes after that.

“This has never been stated by the Russian leadership as the goal of a special military operation,” Valentin Rybakov pointed out.

He recalled that at UN Security Council meeting on 17 February 2023, Belarus quoted former heads of state and government from the Normandy quartet, who recently publicly acknowledged the fact that they were not originally interested in peace in Ukraine when they concluded the Minsk 2 agreements in February 2015. “We consider the lies in the peace settlement negotiations, especially at this level, absolutely unacceptable. We believe that the General Assembly should condemn the irresponsible actions of those politicians who played a concrete role in creating the preconditions for the current conflict,” the Belarusian diplomat said.

Another proposed amendment concerned the inclusion of a crucial element for a peaceful settlement in the text of the document. “We consider it either a tragic omission on the part of the authors and co-authors of this text, or their purposeful act, that the draft resolution, which aims ‘to achieve a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine', does not call for peace negotiations. The Republic of Belarus has been calling for this since the very first days of the conflict. We had been doing the same thing even long before the conflict,” Valentin Rybakov said.

He recalled that it was thanks to the efforts of the Belarusian president that several rounds of negotiations between Kiev and Moscow were organized in Belarus in February-March 2022, which at that time gave rise to cautious optimism. “The disruption of these negotiations, as well as the continued pumping of Ukraine, the war zone, with weapons, leads to a prolongation of the confrontation. This leads to an escalation of hostilities, new casualties, and distances the prospects for peace in Ukraine,” the representative of Belarus said.

No less alarming are the irresponsible statements by certain politicians about their readiness to hand over lethal weapons, up to and including weapons of mass destruction, to Ukraine. “The implementation of such plans will inevitably lead to a new round of escalation and countless casualties with the tangible prospect of a global conflict. This cannot be allowed in any case,” the permanent representative of Belarus said.