You're reading: Lukashenko blames Ukrainian crisis on crooked politicians

Minsk/Vitebsk - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has blamed the Ukrainian crisis on crooked politicians who disrupted the nation's unity.

“This is not a war between peoples. A nationality is not fighting another nationality in Ukraine, such as Belarusians, Russians or others, even Ukrainians,” Lukashenko said at the closing ceremony of the International Arts Festival Slavonic Bazaar in Vitebsk on Thursday evening, July 10.

“There are worthless crooked politicians who once underestimated that unity, the importance of that unity; a crack appeared and our adversaries and enemies squeezed through that crack,” he said.

“And they are setting peoples against one another. They are trying to start a fratricidal war and to draw the Slavonic core – Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians – into that vortex, that whirlpool,” the Belarusian leader claimed. He stressed such things must not be allowed to happen.