Lukashenko and Matviyenko Regional ties and Ukraine

Jun 25

BELTA's complete published public excerpt shows Lukashenko welcoming Matviyenko and crediting regional contacts with preserving warm Russia–Belarus ties during difficult earlier years. He describes the Forum of Regions as yielding billions of rubles and concrete contracts, thanks her for supporting regional cooperation and likens its importance to security. He calls Russia and Belarus a shared homeland, predicts eventual restored relations and unity including Ukrainians, invokes family ties and an unspecified recent conversation with Zelenskyy's representatives, and says Belarus can be counted on. Matviyenko expresses sympathy over the attack on Belarusian children in Bryansk, blames the Kyiv authorities and calls it terrorism and a monstrous crime. She announces that she will attend the Mamkin monument unveiling in Minsk's Polotsk Park that day, credits him with volunteering for the war and seventy-four combat flights, recounts his evacuation of orphanage children and says he landed a burning aircraft with ten children aboard, all surviving, but died from severe burns. She uses that history to compare Nazi violence with the bus attack, says it cannot be forgiven and wishes the children a speedy recovery. She then thanks Lukashenko and Putin for supporting regional ties, which she calls the Union State's backbone. Predictions, responsibility claims, historical characterizations and the planned unveiling remain attributed; the recording does not show the ceremony or establish a peace agreement.

At their June 25 meeting in Minsk, Lukashenko credits direct regional ties with preserving Belarus–Russia relations during difficult earlier years and describes the Forum of Regions as producing concrete contracts worth billions of rubles. He thanks Matviyenko for parliamentary patronage of regional cooperation and places it alongside pressing security concerns. Matviyenko thanks both presidents for supporting regional links, which she calls the Union State's backbone. These are their assessments; the passages announce no particular newly signed contract.