Belarus President: Ukraine is provoking Russia to use nuclear weapons
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko believes that Kiev may have launched the attack in Kursk to provoke a strong reaction from Moscow.
According to RT news agency, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko recently stated that Ukraine's intrusion into internationally recognized Russian territory appears to be a plot to force Moscow to use nuclear weapons. According to him, this will cause irreparable damage to Russia's image globally.
Specifically, in an interview with Russia-1 channel broadcast on August 18, Lukashenko warned that Kiev's campaign in the Kursk region - Kiev's largest cross-border offensive since the conflict broke out - poses great risks to global security.
“The danger is that this kind of escalation on the part of Ukraine could be an attempt to push Russia into asymmetric actions, such as the use of nuclear weapons,” the Belarusian leader said, adding that such a move would bring huge media benefits to both Kiev and its Western backers.
“By then, we would probably have almost no allies left. There would be no sympathetic countries,” he noted, explaining that this reaction would stem from a universal opposition to the consequences that nuclear weapons could cause.
Mr Lukashenko also responded to claims by Ukrainian officials that the offensive in Kursk was aimed at improving Kiev's diplomatic position in potential talks with Russia.
He considered this plan "classic, but ineffective in the struggle with a large empire, which had not yet begun to fight seriously", and he was sure that in the end the Ukrainians would be pushed back from the Kursk region.
According to Russia's current nuclear doctrine, the country can only deploy its nuclear arsenal “in response to the use of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction against Russia or its allies, and also in the event of an attack on Russia with conventional weapons when the very existence of the state is threatened.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said there is no need to use nuclear weapons in the Ukraine campaign. Moscow has warned it may change its nuclear doctrine, but said any changes would be a response to what it sees as escalatory moves by NATO.
