ISTANBUL

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko claimed on Wednesday that, at the request of his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Minsk and Kyiv held contacts to discuss establishing diplomatic communications, but disagreements arose when the US learned about it.

"He (Zelenskyy) offers me: 'Let's talk,'" Lukashenko said in an interview with Russia TV channel Rossiya-1, adding that Ukraine's intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov also took part in the contacts between the two countries that were held in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv.

However, Lukashenko did not say when it took place.

The negotiations were going well, but “some kind of friction” emerged after the US “found out” about them, Lukashenko claimed, adding that the Ukrainian side offered to hold another round of talks in Istanbul, Türkiye, which he refused.

Neither Zelenskyy nor Ukrainian officials have responded to Lukashenko's claim.

During the interview, the Belarusian president warned that a harsh response to Ukrainian provocations would be “an escalation” and could “lead to a third world war."

“Red lines for me are full-scale aggression. From any side now, except for Russia, of course. But the Baltic states, Poland and Ukraine. Now, if they cross the borders with troops, and not with these detachments, and start a war - this is aggression,” Lukashenko added.

He argued that “red lines” can never be drawn as “life changes and the lines move."

"In Ukraine, we will end this war, there are already great prerequisites for this, but then these crazy people from the West will create too many problems for us," he alleged, claiming that NATO exercises show that this direction is “very dangerous."

He added that, despite the steps taken, the West is "afraid" of a large-scale war, and that Belarus “does not want such a development of events” because it could lead to a "global catastrophe."