MFA Ukraine warns Lukashenko about consequences of his meeting with Pushilin

Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko's meeting with the head of the so-called "Donetsk People's Republic," Denis Pushilin, will have consequences for Ukraine's relations with Belarus.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine said this in a statement, Ukrinform reports.

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine strongly condemns another manifestation of the Republic of Belarus's disregard for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine — the holding of an 'official' meeting between Alexander Lukashenko and Denis Pushilin, a representative of the Russian occupation authorities in the temporarily occupied part of the Donetsk region of Ukraine," the statement reads.

The ministry said this meeting was another confirmation that the position of the current Belarusian authorities on Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity was dictated solely by the Kremlin's institutions and had nothing to do with either international law or the international obligations of the Republic of Belarus.

"Ukraine rejects Alexander Lukashenko's hypocritical rhetoric regarding the principles of cooperation with the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine and considers it yet another evidence of support for the war of aggression against our country," the statement said.

"We call on the Belarusian people to realize that amid repeated contacts between Belarusian officials and Russian puppets from our temporarily occupied territories, Alexander Lukashenko's constant statements about his 'warm feelings' for the 'brotherly Ukrainian people' sound like a mockery, and his practical actions destroy the principles of good neighborliness and of mutual respect, on which relations between the Ukrainian and Belarusian peoples were built," the statement reads.

The unfriendly actions of the Belarusian political leadership cannot remain without a proper response and will have negative consequences for Ukrainian-Belarusian relations, the ministry said.

Lukashenko met with Pushilin in Minsk on September 19 and declared his readiness to "help Donetsk."