«Mr President, Honorable guests.
First of all, on behalf of the Belarus people, let me express our solidarity with your nation in a crucial historical moment for all of us. Answering the question, I must say that the fate of Belarus today depends on the fate of Ukraine, and vice versa. Our extremely close and friendly nations share centuries of common history and common challenges. Without a free Ukraine, it is difficult for us to get rid of dictatorial power and preserve our independence. But Ukraine also needs a democratic, independent – and therefore predictable good neighbor Belarus. To never again, even in a nightmare, could not imagine that the Belarusian land could pose a threat to Ukraine. Ukrainians have shown an example of a fearless struggle for their dignity. And Ukraine still pays a high price. The list of human casualties is devastating. Among your heroes, there are Belarusians, because Ukraine is also defending our future. Ukraine’s lesson to us: values are not given for nothing, they must be protected.
The vast majority of the Belarusian people have sympathy for Ukraine. We are against the war and involving Belarus in anti-Ukrainian aggressive actions. The dictator Lukashenko is responsible for bringing foreign troops into Belarus which threatens both Ukraine and Belarus' independence. Moreover, he wants to eliminate neutrality and non-nuclear status from the Constitution in order to allow Russian nukes on our territory. As well as Ukrainians, we do remember the Budapest Memorandum and expect reaction from the democratic world. The dictator can not be a guarantor of independence of Belarus, and he can not be a reliable partner of democracies. He was so scared by people on the streets, so he decided to surrender the sovereignty of Belarus, and become a puppet of the Kremlin. And this process is irreversible.
An important lesson of the Belarusian revolution of 2020 is that freedom, democracy, and state sovereignty are inseparable. People who stood for the right to freely elect the leaders, realized that it is possible only in a free and independent Belarusian state. Lack of mass protests in Belarus now doesn’t mean that people gave up. The dictator knows this and therefore continues the massacre. We also have our own mourning list of deaths, the number of political prisoners is growing every day.
But even a small trigger will be enough for Belarus to rise again. And only the free Belarusian people will be the guarantor of the Belarus independence and its free choice of future path. I am sure that Ukrainians who have gone through such a path understand us and will be among the first to support us.
Слава Україні. Жыве Беларусь».
