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Lukashenka attacks West in Victory Day speech

Alyaksandr Lukashenka traditionally filled his Victory Day speech with combative anti-Western remarks, describing Belarus as a target of an “unannounced Cold War.”

Speaking in Victory Square in Minsk on May 9, the 68th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in the 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War, Mr. Lukashenka said that Belarus constantly found itself “at the point of guns.” “Someone in the West has failed to accept that Belarus has not become yet another banana republic dancing to the tune of overseas democracies. We are strangled through sanctions, smeared with the dirt of slander. NATO warplanes fly, new military bases are created, provocations are committed along our borders,” he said.

Mr. Lukashenka warned that the Belarusian people would not be forced to change its route. “Belarus follows inviolately the principles of international law, is open to equal cooperation with everyone, but one that would be exclusively based on the principles of mutual respect and trust,” he said.

Mr. Lukashenka played up Belarus’ military strength and emphasized the importance of military cooperation with “brotherly Russia.” In a reference to Minsk’s plans to obtain new missile defense systems and warplanes from Russia, he said that they would be used exclusively for defensive purposes. “And we will have as many of them as it is needed for ensuring our state’s security,” he said.

According to Mr. Lukashenka, the military doctrines of Belarus and Russia envisage no prospect of war. “We don’t need other countries’ land but we will cherish our [land] as the apple of our eye, having learned from the experience of previous generations and present-day tragic events. That’s why we will do our utmost to defend the borders of the Union State and strengthen the brotherhood in arms,” he said.

Before the speech, Mr. Lukashenka led a procession of several thousand people, including World War II veterans, who walked half a mile from Kastrychnitskaya Square to Victory Square.

Participants laid wreaths at the obelisk in Victory Square.