Minsk, August 18, 2024, The Europe Today: Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has expressed concern that Ukraine’s recent incursion into internationally recognized Russian territory may be an attempt to provoke Moscow into using nuclear weapons, a move that could severely damage Russia’s global standing.
In an interview aired on Russia-1 on Sunday, Lukashenko cautioned that Kiev’s operation in the Kursk Region—Ukraine’s largest cross-border assault since the conflict began—poses significant risks to global security.
“The danger is that this kind of escalation by Ukraine is an attempt to push Russia into asymmetric actions, such as the use of nuclear weapons,” Lukashenko stated. He emphasized that such an outcome would serve as a major public relations victory for Ukraine and its Western allies.
Lukashenko warned that the use of nuclear weapons by Russia could lead to a loss of international support. “We would likely have few allies left. There would be no sympathetic countries left at all,” he said, noting that global opposition to the devastating consequences of nuclear weapons would drive this reaction.
Addressing claims by Ukrainian officials that the Kursk incursion aimed to strengthen Kiev’s diplomatic position in potential negotiations with Russia, Lukashenko dismissed the strategy. He described it as “a classic maneuver” that would not succeed against “a great empire that has not even begun to fight in earnest.” He expressed confidence that Ukrainian forces would eventually be expelled from the Kursk Region.
Russia’s current nuclear doctrine permits the use of its nuclear arsenal only in response to a nuclear attack or other weapons of mass destruction against Russia or its allies, or if conventional weapons threaten the very existence of the Russian state. President Vladimir Putin has reiterated that there is no need to deploy nuclear weapons in the ongoing conflict with Ukraine, though Moscow has indicated it may revise its nuclear policy in response to perceived escalations by NATO.
