Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky showed a way how to calm down people in Belarus, but his statement was slammed by the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affair, Ukrainian news agency UNIAN reports.
Zelensky said that if one thinks he or she is confident in the people’s vote the best way to calm everyone down is to hold new elections.
"Let's imagine that I'm confident about myself, I'm confident in the people's votes, I'm a confident person. How can I calm everyone down? I would definitely say: 'In one month, there'll be a new vote, and I am running in that new election. Whoever wants to run, go ahead.' I'd invite everyone – all international observers, all of them," Zelensky told in an interview with Euronews.
"And I'd tell the people of Belarus: 'Please, elect whoever you want. And after that result, there would be no more questions, I'm convinced about it. If Lukashenko won, he'd win, if someone else won, then it's someone else. But everyone would be calm, without blood. That'd be fair. It would make history," Zelensky concluded.
However, his opinion was rebuked by the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affair.
“You know, Ukraine is a brotherly country for us and the Ukrainian people are our brotherly nation. At this difficult moment for our country, we would like to see some support or at least understanding but not the advice that already sound like a broken record. We don't need them right now,” said Anatoly Glaz, Head of the Information and Digital Diplomacy Office, Press Secretary of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Belarussian state news agency BelTa reports.
“Although, if you look at the recent history of Ukraine, then, of course, you see that they do have a wealth of experience in some issues. It is just that the result of these political experiments certainly does not convince Ukrainians, and not only them, that these experiments were right and useful. In our opinion, there are many important issues that the Ukrainian authorities will have to deal with daily for many years to come rather than hand out advice to neighbors,” Anatoly Glaz said.