For the whole day of January 14, 2023, Ukraine was under permanent fire of rocket missiles. The result of it was a horrible tragedy in Dnipro, where a missile hit a residential building, destroyed residential buildings in Kyiv region, infrastructural facilities in Lviv, Kharkiv, Ivano-Frankivsk and many other cities.  Once again, the world has seen the ugly face of the Russian aggression against peaceful people.

However, there is an important fact: the first explosions had happened in Kyiv before the air-raid sirens went off. The awakening city was hit from the North from a short distance by S-300 or S-400 missile systems, which cannot be spotted and reacted to by the air defense in advance.

As Ukrainians say themselves, including public officials, most probably those were missiles of Iskander complex, and they were fired from the territory of Belarus, which is very close to Kyiv. It means, the official Minsk was directly involved in that war crime.

Of course, the Belarusian regime became a Putin’s accomplice almost a year ago, when Russian troops invaded Ukraine from the Belarusian territory on February 24, 2022, and airplanes took off from Belarusian airfields to bomb Ukrainian cities.

It has continued to happen since then: hundreds of missiles have been fired from Belarus at peaceful cities of Ukraine. A break that happened in the last several months gave some hope. Nevertheless, on January 14, 2023, that hope was destroyed.

It became obvious for those for whom it had not been for some reason, that while Aliaksandr Lukashenka remains in power, Belarus will always be used as a bridgehead for fight against the civilized world and for aggression against Ukraine. Today, rocket missiles are launched from the Belarusian territory to Ukraine. Tomorrow they can as well hit Poland, Lithuania, Latvia – any country which the Kremlin decides to submit to its evil will.

I strongly condemn using the territory of Belarus for aggression against Ukraine and for aggression against any other country. However, we see that Russia is amassing its troops to the territory of Belarus. We see how the Kremlin urges the Belarusian regime to a more and more massive militarization of the country. We see how the official Minsk is more and more actively inciting belligerent rhetoric in relation to Poland, Lithuania and against the whole Western world.

We see that only one step has remained for the Belarusian army to join Putin in this war.

Belarus is being dragged into the war deeper and deeper, and today’s shelling is distinct evidence of that. A little bit more, and the flywheel of war will not be able to stop. Simple Belarusians will die to satisfy sick ambitions of Vladimir Putin and Aliaksandr Lukashenka.

It must be stopped before it’s too late!

Olga Karach

Our House