Lukashenko says Belarus is ready to help Ukraine

© Michail Metsel/TASS

Belarus is ready to offer support to Ukraine, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Sunday at a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko.

"I want everything in Ukraine to be well. Many interpret it as some kind of games. I know you are not among them," the Belarusian news agency BELTA quoted Lukashenko as saying. "That is why, and I have told you this before: if you want anything from Belarus, just say it, we will give you anything you might ask in just a day."

"I am telling it openly, we have always done everything the Ukrainian president asked us. And we will continue that way," Lukashenko said.

"This is not a game for us. Not just because of trade but because we are neighbours, we live side by side, we are kinsfolk," he added.

The Ukrainian president, in turn, said he hoped the Minsk talks on the settlement in eastern Ukraine would proceed as energetically as they had started. He said that thanks to "efficient cooperation" with the Belarusian side "such terms as the 'Minsk format,' the 'Minsk memorandum,' the 'Minsk protocol,' and the 'Minsk agreements' are part of the history of diplomacy now."

Belarusian-Ukrainian television channel

A Belarusian-Ukrainian television channel will be launched in Belarus as agreed by the two Presidents, Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus and Pyotr Poroshenko of Ukraine, at their meeting on Sunday.

"We already have such experiences. Three or four Russian channels are working jointly with ours," the national news agency BELTA cited Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko as saying. "Why not establishing such a joint channel with Ukraine?".

Belarusian capital Minsk hosted a meeting of the parties to the Ukrainian conflict at OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) - mediated talks on September 5. The meeting yielded a ceasefire agreement and a peace settlement plan.

On September 20 in Minsk, the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine comprising representatives of Ukraine, Russia and the OSCE adopted a memorandum outlining the parameters for the implementation of commitments on the ceasefire in Ukraine laid down in the Minsk Protocol of September 5. The document contains nine points, including in particular a ban on the use of all armaments and withdrawal of weapons with the calibres of over 100 millimetres to a distance of 15 kilometres from the contact line from each side. The OSCE was tasked with controlling the implementation of memorandum provisions. The protocol was signed by OSCE envoy Heidi Tagliavini, Ukraine's former president Leonid Kuchma, Russia's Ambassador to Kiev Mikhail Zurabov, DPR Prime Minister Aleksandr Zakharchenko and the head of Lugansk People's Republic (LPR), Igor Plotnitsky.

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