Belarus will respond immediately to aggression: President

Belarus will instantly respond if Ukraine, the Baltic countries or Poland act aggressively against it, President Alexander Lukashenko said Thursday.

“There can only be one threat: aggression against our country. If aggression begins even on the part of Ukraine, on the part of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, we will respond instantly with everything that we have," Russian state news agency TASS cited Lukashenko as saying in an interview with Ukrainian journalist Diana Panchenko posted on her YouTube channel.

“We are not competing with them. Yet we will deliver an overwhelming strike on them and they will end up with an overwhelming loss, damage," he noted.

Lukashenko underscored that despite the Ukrainian capital being surrounded by Russian troops at one point during the war, Russia did not storm Kyiv because that would have killed a lot of people, TASS reported.

"We had a conversation with (Russian President Vladimir) Putin in connection with this. I say, ‘In order for the war to end, naturally, the capital needs to be taken.’ He says to me: 'You know, it can be done immediately, instantly, but a huge number of people will die,'' he added.

Lukashenko also warned that Ukraine may lose all of its territory if it continues its military activities, according to TASS.

Kyiv needs "to move towards peace," he said, adding: "The first step that needs to be taken is establishing peace."