Lukashenko urges West to take a step towards "bad" Putin

7 мая 2022
More than 250 publications and references in the Western press. The interview of Alexander Lukashenko to the major world news agency Associated Press was unprecedentedly widely copied by the foreign mass media.

Lukashenko's interview to the Associated Press has been widely reproduced in the Western press

Open conversation allowing to get objective and exact information from the first hands attracted a lot of people. If to analyze publications, it is easy to notice that key topics were cited in the EU, America and Russia. The videos were downloaded within a day after the interview was aired. More than 40 foreign TV and radio channels used them for their programs. Among them, there are major representatives of the media field in Europe, as well as China, Japan, India, and Ukraine. As a reminder, the main topics of the interview include the situation in Ukraine, relations between Belarus and Russia, sanctions and a number of other topical international issues.

"I'm telling you right now: this conflict has to be stopped, nobody needs it. People are dying. It must be stopped. I know the position of Russia. I contemplate the position of the West. The interests have already clashed here, you do not even deny it," said Alexander Lukashenko. The head of the state also pointed out that it's important to stop the conflict in the first place. "I would like the West to hear. Bad Putin, good Putin, Russia did the right thing, the wrong thing. I repeat, we should not discuss this issue now. We have to stop the war now. We'll figure it out later. Take this step towards "bad" Putin, take this step. No one wants war. This is bad, it must be stopped. I say this all the time here in Belarus. If I got involved in a war, it would be very difficult for me here. Our people do not accept war, I do not accept it either. I don't want this war," Lukashenko said.

The Associated Press is a news agency with 7,000 newspapers and 248 news bureaus in 99 countries. The full version of the interview is also available on the ATN’s YouTube channel.