President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, whom the EU and the United States do not recognize as legally elected, said that the Belarusian side must be represented at the negotiations on the settlement of the situation in Ukraine.

"It is for the first time that I want to indicate our stance, which has been brought to the foreign minister, and the Foreign Ministry has been tasked with implementing it. There can be no talks without the participation of Belarus. Since you have embroiled us in this, primarily the Western nations, naturally, the stance of Belarus must be heard at these talks," Lukashenko said during an expanded Security Council meeting in Minsk on Thursday. The First Man's Pool, a Telegram channel, believed to be close to the Belarusian president's office, quoted Lukashenko as saying it on Thursday.

"We don't proceed from understanding that we've found ourselves in one basket with Russia, no. We proceed from the notion that this war is behind the fence of our country. And it is affecting the situation in Belarus very seriously. So there can be no separate deals behind the back of Belarus. And I am absolutely sure and I know that Russia is taking this stance. And there is nothing bad about this, but this will contradict the West's design. But it doesn't mean that we have to dance to the tune of the West," the Belarusian president said.