Belarus needs to further strengthen its defense capability and prepare for a possible war, said the President of the Republic Alexander Lukashenko, News.Az reports citing BelTA .
“The old formula: if you want peace, prepare for war . I would like to emphasize once again (although why should we justify ourselves to anyone here) that we are not going to fight, we do not want to fight… All this has already been said. They listen to this, but our opponents, our rivals are doing their job. Those who are preparing against us, let us say frankly, to fight. Therefore, we need to prepare for war. And God willing, this war does not happen,” the head of state said.
At the same time, he noted that so far the Belarusian authorities do not observe “tendencies to unleash a war against us,” although the situation remains tense.
Lukashenko also said that, against the backdrop of conflicts in Ukraine and other parts of the world, Belarus has already reformed its army four times in recent years.
The Belarusian president has repeatedly accused neighboring countries, in particular Poland, of building up troops on the border and called for preparation for a possible conflict. In February of this year, he called concerns about a possible third world war groundless and called for preparation for it “mentally and strategically.” “Finland’s entry into NATO, and Sweden’s entry soon, is the next stage of expansion to the east. They will draw Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, Georgia, and Serbia into the alliance. And all this will be according to Ukraine’s scenario,” the Belarusian president believes.
Last week, Lukashenko issued a public warning that an attack on Belarusian territory would mean the beginning of a third world war. “I want to warn our opponents, our rivals. …> Remember, an attack on Belarus is a third world war,” he said. Earlier in September, he said that without the Soviet nuclear shield, “we would no longer exist.”