00:00We can now cross over live to Kyiv, where Belarusian opposition leader Tvetlana Tekinovskaia
00:04joins us this morning. Good morning, thank you so much for joining us this morning during your
00:09visit to Ukraine. And as you heard there, Russia has relentlessly been hitting Ukraine over the
00:14weekend with a massive missile and drone strike. What does this say, do you think,
00:18about any peace efforts to put an end to this war?
00:22Good morning, everybody. I'm talking to you from Kyiv. It's my first visit actually to Ukraine,
00:28and it sends very clear message that democratic Belarus is with Ukraine, that our people are
00:35allies, not enemies. And Ukraine defends today not only itself, it defends the entire region from
00:42Russian imperialism, and Belarusian understands this very well. Of course, we welcome all the
00:48efforts of all democratic war to bring peace and stability into our region, but this peace deal
00:54has to be just and long-lasting, not just, you know, short time for the Russian troops to regroup
01:01and start attacking again. And attacking again, not only Ukraine, but also be our Western neighbours.
01:08And indeed, you say you're in Kyiv this morning, but Moscow is calling on foreign diplomats and
01:13civilians to evacuate the city, warning of more attacks. What is the situation there on the ground?
01:19I know two days before it was a harsh attack on Kyiv last night where I'd rather come, but I'm
01:26sure we
01:27at any moment can expect the next attack on Ukraine. It shows that Russia, you know, killing civilians,
01:36you know, ruining cities just to put pressure on the Ukrainian government. But I'm so inspired by
01:42Ukrainians, by Ukrainian people, civilians. They are so strong. They are not giving up. And of course,
01:49it's a huge example for other countries, you know, that you have to give to support Ukrainians in all
01:56their aspirations for freedom. And meanwhile, in quite an unusual move, we've seen France issuing a
02:02warning to Belarus not to join Russia's war in Ukraine. But my question to you is, can Lukashenko be
02:07influenced by anyone except Putin? Lukashenko and Putin have a symbiotic friendship, they support each
02:14other, they use each other. And of course, it's illusion that they can be splitted. Lukashenko is
02:21serving to Russia's interest, not to interest of Belarusian people. He's ready to betray our
02:30sovereignty, our independence, just to stay in power. So please, don't this don't think that
02:36Lukashenko can be splitted, he will feel full all the orders of Putin, but he's doing this against
02:42the will of Belarusian people. Okay, we have seen also Belarus and Russia carrying out military nuclear
02:48exercises the other day, but we leave it at that. Svetlana Tsikhanovskaya, thank you so much for joining us here
02:53on Europe Today from Keefe.
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