Poland has derailed a preliminary agreement on a prisoner exchange with Belarus, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said during his working trip to Vitebsk Oblast on 31 October, BelTA has learned.
“We had contacts with the Poles. They are asking for these Pochobuts [Andrei Pochobut, convicted in Belarus], they recognize them as spies. They are detained. ‘Hand them over,’ [the Polish side asks]. We tell them: ‘Well, alright, you have 2-3 of our people. Return them. We will have an exchange.’ They have families too, and so on. Intelligence has existed and will exist. I acknowledge and respect that. Fine, we will exchange them. You want Pochobut – we are ready to agree to that as well. ‘Oh, thank you, we are ready to talk with you, we are opening the border checkpoints, and so on,’” the head of state said, describing the preliminary arrangements that had been in place.
However, according to him, the Polish side’s position has changed. “Yesterday late at night, the KGB reported to me: ‘They have reneged on this position as a sign of solidarity with Lithuania because of these balloons.’ I said: ‘Send them my regards. They stepped back – fine, we’ll step back too. We are halting the process. When you are ready – come, and we will talk,” the president stated.
“We are open to this dialogue and conversation without escalating the situation. Not for a head-on confrontation. That is not necessary. I do not support that. We must always seek compromise. But you can only retreat so far until you hit a wall. Well, I am retreating. But this wall is the limit,” Aleksandr Lukashenko stated. “And then, if you make any steps towards them, humane steps, they do not understand it. They interpret it as weakness. Both the USA and all the others. It’s not about weakness. It’s about the fact that I cannot retreat any further. I cannot.”
“I tell the Americans: I have my own people who judge me by my concrete actions. They see: ‘Lukashenko retreated on that, he released this one… Why? It wasn’t necessary, he should have remained in prison.’ But they don’t possess that information, and I can’t look them in the eye and tell them all of it,” the Belarusian leader added.
“We had contacts with the Poles. They are asking for these Pochobuts [Andrei Pochobut, convicted in Belarus], they recognize them as spies. They are detained. ‘Hand them over,’ [the Polish side asks]. We tell them: ‘Well, alright, you have 2-3 of our people. Return them. We will have an exchange.’ They have families too, and so on. Intelligence has existed and will exist. I acknowledge and respect that. Fine, we will exchange them. You want Pochobut – we are ready to agree to that as well. ‘Oh, thank you, we are ready to talk with you, we are opening the border checkpoints, and so on,’” the head of state said, describing the preliminary arrangements that had been in place.
However, according to him, the Polish side’s position has changed. “Yesterday late at night, the KGB reported to me: ‘They have reneged on this position as a sign of solidarity with Lithuania because of these balloons.’ I said: ‘Send them my regards. They stepped back – fine, we’ll step back too. We are halting the process. When you are ready – come, and we will talk,” the president stated.
“We are open to this dialogue and conversation without escalating the situation. Not for a head-on confrontation. That is not necessary. I do not support that. We must always seek compromise. But you can only retreat so far until you hit a wall. Well, I am retreating. But this wall is the limit,” Aleksandr Lukashenko stated. “And then, if you make any steps towards them, humane steps, they do not understand it. They interpret it as weakness. Both the USA and all the others. It’s not about weakness. It’s about the fact that I cannot retreat any further. I cannot.”
“I tell the Americans: I have my own people who judge me by my concrete actions. They see: ‘Lukashenko retreated on that, he released this one… Why? It wasn’t necessary, he should have remained in prison.’ But they don’t possess that information, and I can’t look them in the eye and tell them all of it,” the Belarusian leader added.
As previously reported, Poland had stated its readiness to open the border checkpoints in Bobrowniki and Kuznica on the border with Belarus in November. However, it later postponed the move following Lithuania’s decision to fully close its road border with Belarus for a month. Lithuania, in turn, cited incidents of weather balloons entering from Belarus as one reason for the closure, claiming they were used for smuggling cigarettes.
As Aleksandr Lukashenko explained, the investigation revealed that these balloons had been launched by Lithuanians themselves from within Belarusian territory.
As Aleksandr Lukashenko explained, the investigation revealed that these balloons had been launched by Lithuanians themselves from within Belarusian territory.