Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, in an interview with the US TV channel Newsmax, parts of which were published by BelTA, called for an urgent end to the war in Ukraine.
He noted that the United States, and Donald Trump in particular, have a key role to play in the peace process. He praised the US President as "a man with a strong personality" who, in his view, had pursued the right approach from the beginning of the conflict.
Lukashenko, a close ally of Vladimir Putin, argues that if Trump's policy had been applied earlier, the war could have been avoided. He also urged the US president to persist in his stance and see the peace efforts through.
According to the Belarusian politician, the conflict must be "frozen from the top down" and then negotiations could begin. He also warned that the continuation of the war could lead to a wider global conflict and seriously threaten the stability of Europe.
The remarks come at a time when US, Ukrainian and European officials are holding talks in Berlin on modifying a US peace proposal that was initially criticised as being too pro-Russian.
(reuters, max)