On July 14, Alexander Lukashenko opened the XXXI International Art Festival “Slavic Bazaar” in Vitebsk. The President of Belarus thanked all the organizers and participants of the event.
– Together we have created an outstanding world-class project. The project connects countries and cultures, shows our common historical choice and our national dignity, Alexander Lukashenko was quoted as saying by Belarusian news agency Belda. “No matter how much the West tries to divide Belarus with an iron curtain, guests keep coming to us,” he continued.
During his speech, the politician referred to the current geopolitical situation. In the 1990s, when the first Slavic bazaar was organized, “no one imagined that the united Slavic world with its thousand-year history would be put in conditions of political and cultural survival,” Lukashenko said.
– We could not even imagine that Yugoslavia, which was close to us, would disappear from the political map, the post-Soviet space would plunge into a series of armed conflicts, and the NATO military base would expand eastward. Slavs on different sides of the barrier, the President of Belarus said.
In his opinion, “the most crushing blow” was struck eight years ago, “in the heart of the Slavic world – the Belarusian-Russian-Ukrainian brotherhood”.
– No matter how history turns today, we lost Ukraine long before the special operation began. That’s when its politicians turned their backs on the Slavic identity – said Lukashenko.
The Belarusian president did not specify which event he was talking about eight years ago. Let us remind you that at the beginning of 2013-2014 there was the so-called Euromaidan. The protests in Ukraine began after Viktor Yanukovych, then president of Ukraine, did not sign an association agreement with the European Union. In 2014, Russia also annexed Crimea and war broke out in the Donbass.
Source: BelTA
Thanks for being with us. Subscribe to Onet Newsletter to get more valuable content from us.
Date Created: Today, 09:58