Lukashenko: Putin is ready to meet with Poroshenko in Minsk

The presidents of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan are ready to hold a meeting in Minsk with Ukrainian colleague Peter Poroshenko. This was stated by Alexander Lukashenko. According to the Belarusian president, he suggested that Vladimir Putin and Nursultan Nazarbayev call Poroshenko to negotiations on trade and sanctions.

“Everyone is not rejected, everyone is ready to come to Minsk,” the BelTA agency quotes Lukashenko. “They even spoke out for some other side, for example, the European Union, the USA, if they are interested in normalizing the situation - economic, military and political - let's sit down in Minsk and talk. We will not reject anyone. This Lukashenko.

He clarified that the topic of negotiations should be an agreement on the Association of Ukraine with the EU. "We are very alerted by this and is afraid that goods from the European Union by zero duties through Ukraine do not go to Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan and do not strangle our economies. This is natural, these are the fears of any state," Lukashenko noted.

“Secondly, in connection with the introduction of an embargo to the supply of some goods to the Russian Federation, it would be very important for us to discuss this second problem in the Customs Union,” the president of Belarus said.

"I said to my colleagues: let's offer Petro Poroshenko, let him connect to the discussion of these problems and others that are in Ukraine, if he wants, we will discuss these issues, they still can’t get around them. They are extremely important for Ukraine because Russia is slowly closing the supply of some goods from Ukraine. The question has recently been heard about alcohol, even earlier - milk, meat products," added Lukashenko.

Putin met with Poroshenko in early June at events in honor of the 70th anniversary of the allied landing in Normandy. The conversation of the two presidents lasted about 15 minutes in the presence of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and France President Francois Hollande.

Poroshenko later said that an agreement was reached on the beginning of negotiations on a peaceful settlement of the situation in the east of Ukraine. In turn, Putin said that he did not consider Russia a party to peaceful negotiations. According to him, Kyiv must negotiate with "supporters of federalization" in the east of the country. According to Putin, he and Poroshenko also discussed the economic consequences of signing an agreement between Ukraine and the EU.

At the end of July, a contact group to resolve the Ukrainian crisis began work in Minsk. Representatives of Russia, Ukraine and the OSCE, as well as the envoys of the Donetsk People’s Republic, participated in the negotiations.