The authoritarian leader of Belarus, Oleksandr Lukashenko, insisted on Tuesday on his country’s peaceful intentions during a visit to Grodno, on the border with Poland and Lithuania.

Oleksandr LukashenkoPhoto: press service of the President of Belarus / AP / Profimedia

“We should not threaten anyone. We do not want any foreign territory,” Lukashenko said in a statement published by the president’s office, according to DPA and Agerpres agencies. “Don’t believe anyone who says we want to fight,” the Belarusian president urged in statements made on the occasion of laying the foundation stone of the hospital.

At the same time, he added: “We are preparing for war, and I say this openly.”

Lukashenko said that Belarus was equipping its army for an attack, accusing NATO members Poland and Lithuania of preparing for war by building fortifications and buying offensive weapons.

The head of the Belarusian state assured the residents of Grodno, which was a Polish territory in the interwar period, that they “belong to Belarus.” “We will not give in to anyone,” Lukashenko said.

Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has allowed his country’s territory to be used for the deployment of Russian troops for the invasion of Ukraine, which began in 2022.

In Gomel, at the opposite end of the country, on the border with Russia and Ukraine, the National Guardsmen began a three-day training exercise to check the training of the troops, the Ministry of Defense in Minsk reported. The training will also involve recruiting volunteers for the defense of the country in wartime.

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