Zelensky proposes that there be international observers on the border between Ukraine and Belarus

Affirms that Putin is trying to drag Lukashenko into the conflict and warns of "provocations"

MADRID, 11 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The president of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelenski, has proposed to the G7 leaders the sending of an international observation mission to the border with Belarus, so that an external actor can prove that the Ukrainian forces have not carried out any attack against the neighboring country or They plan to do so in the future.

Zelensky has taken advantage of the emergency meeting of the main powers to draw attention to Belarus, which already serves as a platform for attacks for Russian interests and now represents "a greater threat", given the evident harmony between presidents Alexander Lukashenko and Vladimir Putin.

According to Zelensky, "Russia is trying to directly drag Belarus into this war, with provocations that say we are preparing an attack." However, "Ukraine has not planned and does not plan military action against Belarus."

For this reason, and in the face of the rhetorical escalation coming from Minsk, the Ukrainian president has offered the deployment of an observation mission as a "solution". He has not clarified the format, which he leaves to future diplomatic negotiations, but has urged the G7 countries to back the proposal.

The president has generally thanked the support of his international partners after two days in which Russian forces have launched more than a hundred missiles on different cities in Ukraine, but he trusts that the aid will go further. He has also stated that Ukrainian intelligence suspects that Russia has ordered 2,400 drones from Iran that they have already begun using over Ukraine.

For this reason, he has demanded more anti-aircraft defense equipment, since he considers them key to eliminating "the main element of Russian terror", missile attacks. He wants the issue to also be on the agenda of the NATO defense ministers' meeting scheduled for Wednesday, to which Ukraine has also been invited.

However, Zelensky has warned that Russian actions "are not limited to missiles" and, in his effort to "provoke chaos in Ukraine and throughout the democratic world", he would be promoting other types of actions, from "sabotage " about gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea to the "artificial" food crisis, which affects the whole world, through nuclear "blackmail" for the control it exercises over the Zaporizhia plant.

Zelensky has welcomed the successive rounds of sanctions -- eight in the case of the EU -- but has called for more. After the "new phase of escalation" that seems to have begun, "a new package is needed, a strong one", in the words of the president, who is in favor of "blocking" the Russian energy sector with "hard" caps on the price of gas and the oil.

"These steps can bring peace closer. They will encourage a terrorist country to think about peace, about the losses of war," the president argued during his speech, broadcast by his office.

Zelensky, as he has expressed on other occasions, sees no room for dialogue with Russia while Putin remains in the Kremlin. "Everyone should realize that there will only be talks with another leader in Russia (...) or in a very different configuration, so that the great terrorist does not have the opportunity to influence key decisions," he said, in allusion to his counterpart.