On Sunday, there was a telephone conversation between Belarus’ President Alexander Lukashenko and French President Emmanuel Macron, the press service of Lukashenko said, reports the Belarusian service of Radio Liberty.
According to Minsk, the conversation was initiated by the French side, while the Elysee Palace has not yet officially commented on the call.
Lukashenko said that the heads of state discussed “regional problems,” as well as Belarus’ relations with the European Union and France in particular. Minsk does not provide other official details.
Experts and observers call Macron’s call an alarm signal. The French leader showed initiative and called on his day off, which indicates the urgency of the issue.
Previous direct telephone contacts between Macron and Lukashenko took place on 20 and 26 February 2022 – on the eve of and immediately after the Russian full-scale invasion.
Among other things, in February 2022, there was serious concern in the West that Lukashenko, under pressure from the Kremlin, would decide to directly involve the Belarusian army in the war. The EU was also concerned about the possibility of Russian nuclear weapons being deployed in Belarus.
In particular, four years ago Lukashenko called the probable deployment of nuclear weapons in Belarus a “fake.”
Belarusian Service quotes historian and political observer Alexander Fridman, according to whom the current activity of Paris may indicate that “Kiev’s statements about the threat from Belarus should be taken more seriously.”
On 19 May, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Aliaksandr Syrski described possible offensive operations of the Russian Federation from Belarus as real.