Top Belarusian security official: We want dialogue with Ukraine

(Patria) - Head of the Belarusian security agency Ivan Tertel said his institution is trying to build contacts with Ukraine to help achieve a solution to its more than three and a half year war with Russia, the country's state news agency reported, Reuters reported.

Ivan Tertel's statements to state television followed reports last week that a high-ranking Belarusian diplomat held meetings with Europeans to try to ease the isolation that has long been imposed on his country, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Tertel, whose statements were carried by the Belta news agency, said meetings with Ukrainian officials are key "in the current situation to reach a consensus".

"This work is also underway. Of course, much here depends on the Ukrainian side. Our president is doing as much as he can to stabilize the situation in the region," said Tertel, whose agency still uses its Soviet abbreviation KGB.
"And we have found a balance of interests of the two sides in this very complex situation with a tendency towards tensions. I am convinced that we can only eliminate this situation through quiet talks and the search for compromise."

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko allowed Russia to use his country's territory to launch part of the war with Ukraine in 2022, but kept his armed forces away from the conflict.

The West has long disapproved of Lukashenko for human rights violations. Punitive measures intensified after security forces suppressed rallies of demonstrators who accused the president of rigging his re-election in 2020, and then for his support of the invasion.

But US President Donald Trump has reached out to Lukashenko in recent months, calling him a "very respected leader" and sending an envoy to Minsk, which led to the release of more than fifty political prisoners.

Belarusian media quoted Lukashenko last month as saying he wanted to talk to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to help facilitate an end to the war.