On May 9, President Alexander Lukashenko addressed attendees at the Victory Monument in Minsk, identifying revanchist forces as Belarus’s enemies. “Our enemy is the revanchists — the direct ideological descendants of the SS, Bandera and the forest brothers,” he said during a wreath-laying ceremony. “Those who are currently removing the remains of Soviet soldiers from Lithuanian Shauliai and calling the feat of the Soviet people a myth. Those who methodically erase the victory of the Red Army from the history of World War II and do not allow us to visit the burial sites of our grandfathers and great-grandfathers.”
Lukashenko added that while fascism may take new forms today, its essence remains unchanged. He noted that increasing global sentiments of national exclusivity and state superiority are leading to conflict and division.
In a separate May 8 conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Lukashenko stressed that the Great Patriotic War victory must be preserved. “Victory Day is a kind and bright holiday,” he stated, highlighting that Belarusians lost one in every three citizens during the war — a reality no president can ignore.
