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Lukashenka warns against a federal Ukraine

Ukraine’s transformation into a federation would ruin the state, Alyaksandr Lukashenka said in an interview that he gave to Russia’s NTV television network last week.

The interview was expected to be aired by the government-controlled channel on Sunday night.

“If you want to keep Ukraine a unified state, and I want Ukraine very much to be a unitary, monolithic, unified state, it should not be turned into a federation. That would lead to Ukraine’s split tomorrow, destroy the state,” the government’s news agency BelTA quoted him as saying.

Mr. Lukashenka warned that provincial governors in a federal Ukraine would have too broad powers. “Those who need to use this would do so, and that would result in Ukraine’s disintegration,” he said. “That’s why I don’t even want to discuss this matter, I’m flatly against its transformation into a federation because I’m for unified Ukraine.”

Mr. Lukashenka added that if Ukraine became a federation, it would prevent the deployment of NATO troops in the country, a scenario which he said Minsk and Moscow feared most. However, he urged the international community to help Ukraine remain a unitary state in an arrangement that would also discourage the deployment of NATO troops in Ukraine.

“Pushing Ukraine toward a federal state now is very dangerous. It’s dangerous to all: Belarus, Russia and the West. People will never agree to that, never,” he said.