You're reading: Lukashenko: Ukraine government ‘should purely and simply work’

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has advised Ukraine's new government to pay more attention to domestic problems and "cut down on running around on foreign lands."

“The bottom line is they should purely and simply work, they should cut down on running around foreign lands, they should focus on their own country and the wellbeing of their own people,” Lukashenko said at a meeting of the Belarusian Security Council in Minsk on Wednesday. “We’ll give them advice and help about how to do this if necessary.”

The president said he is often asked what needs to be done to surmount the crisis in Ukraine. “I answer jokingly: don’t get fussed, all you need to do is to work. And if you don’t know what to do, entrust that country to us, and by the end of the year we’ll achieve stability, social unity and national integrity there,” he said.

He ruled out the possibility of Belarus experiencing this kind of political crisis. “I want to say for the umpteenth time that there will be no Maidan in Minsk, there’s no room for any Maidan here,” Lukashenko said.

In a comment on warnings in Western media that Russia might crack down on Belarus if the latter follows the Ukrainian scenario, he said: “If they’re trying to intimidate us, it’s very cheap. We won’t be intimidated.”