President of Belarus Denies Zelensky's Statement about Proposing Strike on Mozyr Oil Refinery

President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko denied Vladimir Zelensky's statement about proposing to the Ukrainian side to strike the Mozyr Oil Refinery in the early days of the Special Military Operation. He made this statement to journalists in Minsk, as BELTA reported.

Alexander Lukashenko recalled one of Zelensky's recent statements that he wanted peace, while the President of Belarus allegedly proposed striking the Mozyr Oil Refinery. "Listen, when I heard this, I felt sick. It was absolutely unacceptable for me to propose to Zelensky to strike our refinery. The best, I would say, in the world, which we recently modernized, investing huge funds into it. I swear to you, this never happened. Why are you saying this? You are a bad showman, you are not even Trump. You can't say that, you are lying!" emphasized the Belarusian leader.

Alexander Lukashenko explained that it would not be beneficial for him: "I would have to respond. So, I would be drawn into the war." At the same time, the Belarusian leader emphasized that he did everything to prevent the war.

"As for peace in Ukraine, this is not a question to me. You have known my policy and position for a long time. Three rounds of peace negotiations immediately after the start of the conflict—the Special Military Operation—took place on our land. And if I told you who organized these first rounds, you would be amazed. These Ukrainians, Zelensky was showing off as much as he could. They agreed to hold the first meeting in Gomel, say, at 11 AM and arrived only at night. Frankly, I was holding back the Russians, saying: 'Guys, don't leave! They will accuse us later of not wanting negotiations,'" the President said.

According to him, this was constant. Then the Ukrainian side wanted to negotiate in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, further from the border with Russia. And this request was granted. Then, after three rounds of peace negotiations in Belarus, the negotiations were moved to Istanbul. "Go wherever you want. To Kazakhstan, Istanbul... Just don't stop the negotiations. People are dying! It was already clear then how many people would die," noted Alexander Lukashenko, speaking about his attitude towards this at that time.