MP Yevhen Shevchenko has been "helping" Ukrainian military intelligence for a long time, he was involved in communication with the unrecognized President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, said head of the Main Intelligence Agency of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Major General Kyrylo Budanov.

"We have used all our possible ways of communication [with Lukashenko], all the opportunities that we had. They even involved one deputy. This is also true. In order to prevent Belarus, as a country, from being drawn into this war. This is the first goal. The second is when the Russian army was forced out and fled in order to prevent repeated attempts to enter Ukraine from the territory of Belarus or attempts to strike. As time has shown, as of now, we have managed to achieve this," he said in an interview with the program Different People.

Answering a clarifying question about the name of the Ukrainian deputy who was involved, Budanov said: "Everyone understands, this is Mr. Shevchenko. Yevhen."

"We use the opportunity of his communication, his connections. In principle, it has never been much hidden. It is effective in this process. Mr. Shevchenko has been helping us for a long time. Let's call it that. And he never refused when we made requests," the head of the Ukrainian military intelligence explained.

According to Budanov, Putin has already lost hope of dragging Lukashenko into a war against Ukraine.

"Lukashenko – whether we like him or not, he is not an idiot. And the repetition of the situation that occurred on February 24, 2022, he himself is the first one who wants to prevent. In fact, even then his opinion was not particularly taken into account, but he drew conclusions, as I see, as we all see," he said.

Member of Parliament of Ukraine of the IX convocation Yevhen Shevchenko was expelled from the Servant of the People faction on May 24, 2021.