Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko said in an exclusive interview with the British broadcaster BBC on Friday that Belarusian security forces might have helped migrants cross the Belarusian border with Poland, but denied inviting migrants to Belarus.
“It simply came to our notice then. We are Slavs. We have hearts. Our soldiers know that migrants are going to Germany. Maybe someone helped them, ”Lukashenko said in an interview with the BBC at the Presidential Palace in Minsk.
However, he denied inviting thousands of migrants to Belarus to provoke a crisis at the border.
“I told them that I was not going to detain migrants at the border, to keep them at the border, and if they continued to arrive, I would still not stop them because they were not going to my country,” Lukashenko said.
“It simply came to our notice then. But I didn’t invite them here. And to be honest, I don’t want them to go through Belarus, “he added.
As part of an extensive hybrid attack on the Lukashenko regime, efforts have been made in recent months to send thousands of illegal immigrants from Belarus to Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, most of whom have arrived in Belarus as tourists from Iraq.
However, since last Monday, there have been massive attempts by Belarusians to violently break into Polish territory.
The European Union has accused the Minsk regime of trying to avenge support for the Belarusian opposition and of sanctions against Belarus in response to last year’s violent crackdown on protests.
The team of Sviatlan Cihanouska, the leader of the democratic opposition in Belarus, criticized the BBC for interviewing Lukashenko, saying it would give the dictator a voice.-
In a BBC interview, Mr Lukashenko was asked about the beatings of protesters and tried to show a video of people who had been detained in a detention center in Minsk with injuries sustained during the torture.
“Well, well, I admit it, I admit it. People were beaten in the Okrestina detention center. But the police were also beaten, and you did not show it, “Lukashenko said.
Asked about the destruction of civil society and the closure of some 270 non-governmental organizations since July, Lukashenko said Belarus would destroy all Western-funded tragedies.
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