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Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Monday he was concerned about what he called “Western moves” to “isolate” Ukraine, and accused Poland of occupying the western part of the country.
He did not provide any evidence in support of his claim.
During a televised meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Lukashenko said, “Our concern is that they are ready, polar and NATO, to help take western Ukraine as it was before 1939.”
Lukashenko, a close ally of Putin, said Kiev would eventually seek help in resisting the occupation of western Ukraine.
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Moscow has in the past suggested that Poland seek to establish control over Ukraine’s historic Polish lands, a claim that Warsaw has denied as false information.
Poland is one of the strongest supporters of Ukraine, sending arms across the border and accepting more than 3 million Ukrainian refugees.
Belarus said in March that its armed forces were not taking part in what Moscow called its “special operation” in Ukraine, but that it had acted as a launch pad for Russia to send thousands of troops across the border on February 24.
Under a non-aggression pact signed in 1939, just before the outbreak of World War II, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union engraved Poland between them. Most of the territory occupied by Moscow is now in Belarus or Ukraine. Kaliningrad, formerly German East Prussia, became an enclave of Russia. (Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Kevin Leafy and Angus McSowan)