«We are ready to continue making a real contribution to settling the conflict and minimizing its consequences. There is no alternative to a peaceful solution anyway,» the Belarusian leader stressed. «If you want to reach an agreement (and I am addressing those who want to reach an agreement), please, come. Come to Minsk. Any place — the President Hotel, the Palace of Independence — I will give it all up. Come, as it once was, and we will negotiate.»

«Not ‘you negotiate’ but ‘we will negotiate’. Because we are involved in this Ukrainian conflict, our interests in these peace talks are very serious. Come, and we will talk. Without any mediation. I do not want to play the role of mediator. Especially since our interests in these talks are considerable and serious,» the head of state said.

Aleksandr Lukashenko drew attention to the fact that Ukraine will have to be rebuilt after the conflict: «No West will rebuild Ukraine. Ukrainians must understand that we, the Russians and they themselves will be forced to rebuild Ukraine and do everything so that the peoples forget about this.»

The president is convinced that reconciliation between peoples is possible. He recalled that in the middle of the last century, during the Great Patriotic War, Belarus lost every third inhabitant, and in total about 30 million Soviet people died in the war. «Less than a century has passed, and we somehow established relations with the Germans, we somehow cooperated with them and quite well, especially Russia, when the Soviet Union collapsed. What else was lacking? Well, never mind, there is not long left to endure, so that the Germans finally understand absolutely everything that they have lost,» Aleksandr Lukashenko said.