MOSCOW. Feb 18 (Interfax) - Russia and Belarus have to react to the West's actions, including by conducting joint military exercises and through diplomacy, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said, adding that the Western partners have lost the first round and are continuing to scare the whole world with false claims about a possible invasion of Ukraine.
"Our Western partners, as you call them, have now brought the military-political spectrum to the forefront, and we have to react to it, including by holding military exercises and through diplomacy. I think that they are not likely to succeed here either. They seriously lost the first round, but now I see that they are already starting the second round and are scaring the whole world by saying that 'tomorrow' we will attack, encircle, destroy Ukraine, etc.," Lukashenko said at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"But, no matter how much we've discussed these issues, we never had such plans," he said.