Tsikhanouskaya: Sacrificing Ukraine’s interests now will allow another invasion

The EU and NATO should be taking the threats coming from Russia and Belarus seriously, says Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.

The Belarusian opposition leader told Euronews that "while Lukashenko is in power, Belarusian land can be used as a launching pad for an attack again on Ukraine or on our Western neighbours."

At the Munich Security Conference in February, Ukraine's president issued a stark warning saying that Russia is preparing for a major military escalation, potentially targeting NATO countries as early as next year.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy specifically pointed at Belarus as a launchpad for a possible future attack.

Zelenskyy said Kyiv "clearly understands what the Russians are going to do with Belarus."

"Russia is preparing 15 divisions. Around 100-150,000 troops are being trained to aggravate the situation on the Belarus direction," Zelenskyy said.

"I am not sure if they will attack Ukraine, but they will attack. Maybe Ukraine, maybe Poland, maybe the Baltic countries."

In early 2022 Russia used Belarus as a launchpad for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. This was preceded by Minsk allowing Russian armed forces to stage weeks-long 'military drills' on its territory, a facade for the planned invasion.

Tsikhanouskaya says this threat is very real today.

"It's no problem for Lukashenko to serve Putin and give our land and infrastructure for the invasion. As long as the regime is there, there will be constant threat to your security. We have to dismantle this regime to get rid of Lukashenko. Only in this case will Belarus not be the source of constant blackmailing with migrants, with nuclear weapons or joint drills with the Russians."

"Dictators are irrational," Tsikhanouskaya says, adding that Europe can also stop a possible attack by not allowing Ukraine's interests to be sacrificed now.

"Not providing long-lasting peace would allow Russian troops to regroup, to strengthen themselves and to start another invasion or blackmail with an invasion in the near future," she said, adding that if the EU and hopefully the US "will not sacrifice the Ukrainian territories or Ukrainian interests that will embolden Russians, maybe it will not happen."

"If the solutions that we are taking now about Belarus, about Ukraine, are like ready to leave some territories under Russian influence, it will show that the democratic world cannot answer decisively, that they accept that the subjugation or invasion of other countries as possible and they do not have instruments to counter this, it might happen that they will knock to the doors of European Union."