Lukashenka again mentioned Protasevich during his speech at the ANC: "Now it is already known that he is our man"

"Over five years, we have learned a bit to live under the sanctions imposed against us. I reminded you about that plane. Remember when they said: 'Here, Roman Protasevich was caught, arrested, they grounded the plane to arrest him.' I did everything I could to explain to them: 'Guys, the plane was flying to Vilnius, it was already over Vilnius. So land it in Vilnius.' There was a bomb threat. Why did you turn around from Vilnius, flew in from the south, and started landing this plane in Belarus? The military reports: 'He is our man, he is sitting there'," said Lukashenka yesterday.

"Now it is already known that he is our man. But sanctions were imposed against us. And they report to me. I say: 'Lord, what to do? We don't need him to land in Minsk. He needs to go to Vilnius.' I tell the military: 'Lift all instructions and act strictly according to instructions.'"

Lukashenka yesterday recounted a supposed conversation from May 23, 2021;

"Khrenin says: 'We need to raise a fighter jet, escort it, what if something happens?' I say: 'Raise it. Do you need two? Raise two, three, five, but everything must be according to instructions.' They escorted it, in the tail — these are objective control materials. They landed in Minsk, did everything. And then I tell Tsertsel: 'Arrest him as an enemy of the people'."

This is the operation, what its purpose was. Sanctions were imposed. So now apologize and cancel them. Not because there was our man on the plane, whom we had to arrest, but because you were right? No — because you were wrong. We did everything according to instructions. But what was your plan? We still don't know," added Lukashenka.

For the first time, the politician said that Protasevich was "our man" and "a long-time man of Belarusian intelligence" he stated on October 31.

"I won't go into a long story. Protasevich is an employee of our intelligence. Did we need to detain him? And here's the question, why did they [Ryanair flight] fly to Vilnius, didn't land there, but turned around and flew to Minsk, landed after a call that there was some explosive on board... Well, land, you were flying to Vilnius, were over Vilnius — land. They turned around, flew to Minsk. Landed in Minsk. I say: 'Well, conduct the operation, he worked under the cover of these fugitives. Conduct the operation as it should be'," he said.

"We had to carry out an operation to detain him. Although we didn't need to detain him. He came to Greece, he was summoned there, he told the intelligence officers everything that interested us, received an assignment and flew back. To where he worked, via Vilnius. We were accused of detaining an oppositionist. But he is not our oppositionist. We did not detain an oppositionist. That's why sanctions were imposed," Lukashenka said on October 31, speaking in Lepel district.

On Wednesday, December 17, it became known that Protasevich was hired by STB.

• 0
• 1
• 8
• 13
• 0
• 0
• 0
• 0