President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko admits Crimea is Russia both de cure and de facto

President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko recognised that Crimea became part of Russia following the referendum that was held there in 2014.

"We all understood that Crimea is de facto the Russian Crimea. After the referendum Crimea de jure became Russian too,” the Belarusian leader said in an interview with RIA Novosti.

Earlier in November, Alexander Lukashenko complained that his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin had not invited him to Crimea. Soon afterwards, Andrei Savinykh, a Belarusian parliamentarian, chairman of the Permanent Commission on International Affairs of the House of Representatives, said that Lukashenko's remarks "without any doubt” could be regarded as the recognition of Crimea as Russian territory.

Crimea became part of Russia in March 2014 as a result of the referendum in which the overwhelming majority of those who voted in the region supported such a decision. At the same time, Belarus did not recognize Crimea as Russian territory. Earlier, Lukashenko said that he was ready to change his stance on the peninsula only if Russian oligarchs recognize Crimea as part of Russia.

Lukashenko would like Russian nuclear weapons back

President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko also said that he would be ready to offer Putin to return nuclear weapons to the republic on one condition. Belarus will agree to redeploy nuclear weapons only if similar NATO systems are deployed in Poland, Lukashenko said in an interview with RIA Novosti, commenting on NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg's assumption that German nuclear weapons could be deployed in other European countries, if Germany refused to retain them. 

When asked what systems he was talking about exactly, Lukashenko replied: 

"The nuclear weapons that will be most effective in the event of such a contact."

In April 2010, Lukashenko said that the withdrawal of nuclear weapons from Belarus was a big mistake. 

“We were not guaranteed security, and it took us sweat and blood to get it. We took those weapons out! If we had this weapon, they would talk to us differently,” he then said.