Sensational Interview With Polish General About Belarus

NATO will help the Belarusians, and Lukashenka will have to flee.

An uprising is inevitable in Belarus, and the West must be ready to support the Kalinovites, who will come back to liberate the country. These words of the former Vice Minister of Defence of Poland, the former commander of the Polish Ground Forces, General Waldemar Skrzypczak caused hysteria among Lukashenka and the Kremlin propagandists.

Polish General Waldemar Skrzypchak gave an exclusive interview for Studio X-97. He told how NATO will support the struggle of the Belarusians against the regime, how the Kalinovites can liberate Belarus, why Lukashenka will face the fate of Yanukovych, whether it is necessary to neutralize Putin and when the war in Ukraine will end.

Subscribe to the Charter'97 Youtube channel - charter97video. Share the video with your friends. Like and write comments.

– There is much talk about the NATO Summit in Vilnius. Is the summit a signal to the Kremlin and Lukashenka regimes?

– Vilnius hosted the summit. This indicates that the eastern flank of NATO is of key importance for the North Atlantic Alliance in light of current developments in Ukraine. The decisions of the summit play a key role in supporting Ukraine because without support, let's be honest, it will not be able to wage this war. This is the main thing and this is how it should be. It's necessary to keep helping and increase the support. NATO should help Ukraine even more.

– Is NATO moving its weapons and military equipment to the East?

– The Americans and some NATO member states are deploying their troops and weapons in the Baltic countries and in Poland. This is a direct response to the threats of Putin and Lukashenka. NATO scares off dictators with it and makes Putin and Lukashenka slow down in anti-NATO activities and in actions against Eastern Europe.

– What should Putin and Lukashenka understand?

– They should understand that the developments of February 24, 2022, were the biggest mistake and miscalculation in the history of Russia. The war he [Putin - Ed.] started against Ukraine will be a historical disaster for Russia. Russia thought it would quickly swallow Ukraine, but was defeated. This is a defeat, the level of which no one could have predicted. Even in the West, they thought that the defence of Ukraine would not last long.

Ukraine bit back and knocked out the teeth of the Russian army. This is a historic event because Russia has never suffered such a defeat before in its history.

– Russia got hit in the face like never before, didn't it?

– To put it bluntly, yes.

– You said in one of your interviews that it was time for the West to act decisively. What are these decisive actions by NATO?

– It is necessary to create security guarantees for Ukraine. Ukraine is actually fighting alone and it is fighting the empire. Previously, the entire free democratic world helped and supported Ukraine (more than the transfer of weapons, ammunition, assistance to civilians, for example, in Poland). However, now it is necessary to give Ukraine guarantees that will allow it to enter active hostilities. Secondly, we must help it to keep its independence from Russia in the future.

– What should be done specifically?

– First, it is necessary to close the sky over Ukraine. The Russians are unpunished there now. Ukraine does not currently have systems that could interrupt this impunity. There must be a United Nations resolution that would close the Ukrainian skies to Russia. If this had happened, the course of the war would change significantly.

It is necessary to stop the unpunished killings of civilians by the Russians. Not so long ago we saw such acts, for example, in Kramatorsk and Lviv, where the Russians killed civilians. The Russians are killing civilians, not the military. This is a terrible war.

The Russians behave like the Germans during the Second World War. If we do not create conditions for the security of Ukraine, this means that we, the Western world, are not capable of anything. The international community simply has an obligation to create a security framework. This won’t happen without a peaceful sky and military support.

– So do you expect the decisions that allow Western forces, NATO forces, to shoot down aircraft that appear in the airspace of Ukraine?

– The UN has powers to protect civilians, which allows it to adopt such a resolution. The UN can implement it in such a way that the Alliance protects the sky over Ukraine. And then they will have the right to do what you are talking about: shoot down Russian missiles and aircraft.

– What bold decisions should the West make regarding Belarus?

– It seems to me that everyone has forgotten about Belarus. Everyone looks at Belarus through Lukashenka. Is he important for the Belarusian people? I don't think so. Conditions are needed when the international community could guarantee a good future for the Belarusians.

Lukashenka's days are actually numbered. He will disappear and when he is gone, there should be democracy and freedom in Belarus. This will not happen immediately, it is clear that this is a process. But the weaker Russia is, the better conditions we have for changing the situation in Belarus. We must weaken Russia so much that it can no longer support Lukashenka.

I believe that Lukashenka will also flee from Belarus, as Viktor Yanukovych once fled from Ukraine. Lukashenka has no other future. I think so and I believe that the pride of the Belarusians and their desire to be free will contribute to the situation. Belarus will have no other way but integration with the civilized world.

– Is it possible to send international and NATO troops to Belarus in a crisis situation?

– I think that there is no such possibility. NATO is a security system. The North Atlantic Alliance can’t do it, it does not have appropriate cooperation agreements with Belarus. But when the war ends, the situation can be changed by the Kalinouski Regiment and other Belarusian military formations.

When Belarusian soldiers formed the Kalinouski Regiment in Ukraine last year, I said that these soldiers would not lay down their arms after the war, they would return with weapons to Belarus to liberate their homeland. It's about rebellion, confrontation. It is best that the Belarusians do this. So that they themselves liberate Belarus.

– Indeed, it's not just a theory. We're interviewing the fighters of the Kalinouski Regiment and, you know, they are directly saying that after winning the war with Russia, they will overthrow the Lukashenka regime and liberate their homeland.

– This is the highest goal for those who have weapons now - to spread freedom. I believe that the Belarusian people are waiting for this moment.

– What should the West, NATO, Poland do? Do you think that there will be an uprising and a struggle against the regime in Belarus?

– I don’t rule it out, I don’t even rule out that some Belarusians will leave the country, as it happened with the Ukrainians now. People may be afraid of confrontation and war, and some will start to flee. If the Belarusians flee, it is best to go to Poland and Lithuania. We are obliged to accept them. We, as neighbours, must open the borders and give them a chance to survive. We all know what to expect from the regime.

– Should Poland give arms to the Kalinouski Regiment? How should the West react?

– Not only Poland, but NATO should support the Belarusians at the same level as they support Ukraine now. It is necessary to create conditions for a government that will support the Belarusians. All the countries are obliged to support, not only Poland.

– If you were to make a decision, would you provide the Kalinouski Regiment with weapons in the current situation?

– We have no choice. Like all people, the Belarusian people have the right to be free. The Lukashenka regime is criminal, so we, free Europe, NATO, the EU, must fight against authoritarianism. Authoritarianism must be burned to the ground. Belarus has no alternative, it must get rid of Lukashenka. It's impossible without the help of the West.

– Are formal channels of communication between Warsaw and Minsk or Moscow working now?

– If there are some, then all this is classified information. However, I believe that we have no reason to maintain contact with Minsk or Moscow. Look at them. Lukashenka, for example, threatens us with nuclear weapons, destabilizes the situation with migrants and constantly intimidates us with the Wagnerites. Moscow delivers the same message.

What can be expected from them? Nothing good. Dictators will always react badly to what we do for the Belarusians. So we don't care. Don't care, because we are the strength. Strength lies in the unity of NATO and the EU.

– Is Putin afraid of NATO?

– He is afraid and he will never start a conflict with NATO. Those who are intimidating with the conflict between Russia and NATO are mistaken. Putin is well aware of what would happen if such a conflict began. I have been repeating this for many years. Russia has only one safe border. The Russian safe border is the one that NATO guards. Such is the reality.

– You recalled the provocations of the Lukashenka regime on the Polish-Belarusian border. Thousands of attempts to illegally cross the border, shootings and the use of migrants. Do you think that at this stage Poland has the right to a military reaction in response to the actions of the Lukashenka regime in this situation?

– Lukashenka is waging an undeclared war against Poland. What is happening on the border is a hybrid war. Lukashenka attacks us with information and propaganda, intimidates us constantly with nuclear weapons, scares us that Russia will attack us and sends thousands of unfortunate migrants to us, who often die in very difficult conditions at the border, for example, freeze to death in winter. This is a war against Poland.

Poland does not respond militarily, let's say, Poland is holding arms in hands and watching how the situation will develop further. Lukashenka may not risk crossing the red line, since a powerful response would follow from our side, the response of the Polish army. And, let's be honest, he has no chance of winning in cases of conflict with the Polish army. In fact, he is afraid of the Polish army, he is afraid of us. He provokes it because he hopes that Poland will not attack Belarus first. Lukashenka has no chance of confronting us.

– How do you see the Lukashenka and Putin regimes currently?

– The Lukashenka regime rests solely on the special services and on those people whom he appointed. I do not think that ordinary soldiers or military personnel support Lukashenka. They see the consequences of the war, they see what Lukashenka did, and they remember well the protests against Lukashenka. You see, this is something that people will hardly forget even in many years.

For example, there were the 1970 protests in Poland - it resulted in powerful protests in Gdansk that changed history 10 years later. The protests that took place in Belarus, I assure you, will grow into an even greater movement against the Lukashenka regime, and we have to be ready for this. Lukashenka has no strength, he has no tools. The regime is supported only by his special services trying to control everything. But it’s impossible to control everything.

Putin's regime is quite unstable. The Russian people realized that the war was not going the way Russian propaganda tells after the outbreak of the war and after Prigozhin's rebellion. This war is a series of defeats and misfortunes, including military ones. Look how many have died. Previously, propaganda managed to hide it, but what happened in Voronezh, what happened in Rostov, when the Wagnerites came there and started talking about the war, they started talking about what was really happening, that the war was really terrible. And it seems to me that the Russians are coming to the understanding that this war, as the Kremlin calls it a special operation, is Putin's big defeat, his huge defeat. Putin is losing allies.

– At the beginning of your military career, you were a tank crew member. You often say that you are a soldier in interviews. If you were in the same place with Putin, Shoigu, would you start shooting?

– No one would doubt that, and neither would I. I would shoot Putin. There is so much blood of innocent people on his hands that there is no right to doubt.

– The overthrow of Lukashenka and Putin. What are the main?

– Putin should be put under pressure at the political level. From a military point of view, he has not lost yet. At the political level, it is necessary to force him to make concessions regarding Ukraine, to show that the catastrophe in Russia is his work. Maybe they'll remove him on their own.

It seems to me that in the future Russia will try to recover from the war and will try to return to international venues. It’s impossible in war time. Russia can try to do it only without Putin.

Lukashenka's time is running out, he has no future. Lukashenka is ending, he is not the leader of the Belarusian people.

– Is he in a worse situation than Putin?

– Definitely. He was left alone. Putin will not help him in a critical situation. He is doomed to oblivion. I believe that he will try to hide in Russia, but he will perish somewhere far from Belarus and from the Belarusian people. He did not deserve the good treatment of his own people.

– How to win?

– Determination and courage. If you have courage and determination, you can win a lot. We need to set strategic goals and be determined.

– What do you think about the Russian army? In light of the crimes in Bucha and after we saw them stealing toilet bowls and refrigerators. You are a general, and you and they are called military. Isn't that humiliating?

– Both I and they wear uniforms. We are called the same, but, unfortunately, not everyone can be called a soldier. The Russians in uniform who attacked Ukraine, killed people in Irpin, Bucha and many other places. I assure you that after the war we will find out that there are many more places where Ukrainians were killed. They call themselves soldiers, they want to be called military. However, war criminals cannot be called soldiers.

They are just criminals who are wearing military uniforms. These bandits should not be protected by international humanitarian law, the law of war. The Hague Tribunal after the war will judge them.

For me, as a military man, it is humiliating that the Russian commanders approved the killings and crimes against civilians. We are dealing with criminals and bandits who are pretending to be military.

As for my thoughts about the Russian army? When, on the third day of the war, on February 27, the Ukrainians stopped the Russians, I, as an old soldier, realized that something had gone wrong with the Russians. After three days of the war, I then publicly said in Poland that the Russian operation went awry, that they would not win the war. It was a quick assessment of the situation. The Russians were not ready to win this war.

As a military man, I will tell you that they have not created an advantage that, according to doctrine of war, would allow them to succeed. By and large, the Russian army lost this war on the third day. The army was not ready, it had a bad command, it was robbed and corrupted. The soldiers there, in this army, are like cannon fodder, all of them.

The Russian army is the army of the third world. It is the army of the "banana" republic. They have beautiful parades, but that's all. NATO was afraid of them, afraid of their potential. But we did not see the bottom, we only saw the top, we saw what appeared on Red Square in Moscow. And what was there? The best tanks, parades, generals. But it turned out that it was fiction. The truth is different: the Russian army now looks the same as in the days of Tsar Nicholas. It's wasted, miserable, robbed, with bad weapons and equipment. It's incapable of waging real war with anyone.

– Could you give a professional assessment to Minister Shoigu?

– I'm not considering him a soldier. Shoigu is a civilian disguised as a military. They gave him a uniform and made him the Minister of Defence. Only Gerasimov is a military among all of them, he was a military, but Shoigu was not, he simply put on a general's uniform and got the Defense Minister seat. It was he who allowed the robbery of the army. He appointed commanders who turned out to be thieves.

Their troops don't have gear, they have expired foodstuff in the trenches, they're in poor physical condition and they have paper helmets... What does that say about their commanders? What does that say about their minister? Where did they put all the money? I will answer: they spent the money on mansions in Italy, on mansions in France. They robbed the army and transferred money to London, Italy, France. After the war, they will probably want to flee there.

– Will Russia collapse?

– We really want this. There is no unifying force in Russia now. There are many internal Russian events that provoke internal problems and there will be more of them. Problems of an economic nature, problems between peoples. Look what happened to the former Soviet republics that became independent states: they have all turned their backs on Russia, they are breaking free from the chains that Russia has put on them.

Putin has no way back to the empire. Its borders will burn: the Caucasus will burn, the border in Asia will burn. Putin so dreamed of an empire, but now he has no strength to keep what he has. There will be no more empire. The question is the depth of the collapse of the empire and the future shape of Russia. It will definitely not be the same as it was before it started. Now it depends only on China whether Russia will survive. No one else will help, no one else will shake their hand.

– There are pro-democratic and pro-European forces in Belarus. We all saw this in 2020, during the revolution, which, unfortunately, was not successful. There are many people in the country who support pro-European and pro-Western aspirations. Does Belarus have prospects to become a member of the EU and NATO?

– This is a dream not only of the Belarusian people but ours too. We are not strangers. Our peoples once lived in one state. In fact, Belarusians are closer to us, Poles, Europeans, than to Russians. Secondly, Belarus strives to be a part of Europe and it depends on us, Poland, whether they, Belarusians, will be a part of Europe. I believe they are entitled to it. I think that Belarusians are worthy citizens of Europe. They need to create conditions, get rid of the Lukashenka regime, which is destroying Belarusians in Belarus.

– In one of the interviews, you said that the situation was developing for the benefit of Ukraine and the civilized world. What is necessary to be more successful?

– I believe there will be a ceasefire in the autumn. The war will not end on the battlefield.

– And as always during negotiations.

– Exactly. Beijing and Washington are already engaged in such negotiations. We don't know everything that goes on behind the scenes. But this is still an open question between Beijing and Washington. They must find a compromise that suits them. They will try to stop this war. Ukraine will return as much as Zelensky and the army can win back, but not everything will be returned. And now the main question of principle is whether we, the world community, can force Russia to liberate the entire territory of Ukraine.

I believe that it's necessary to fight for this. It is necessary to create conditions for Ukraine to regain all its territories. It can't be done only on the battlefield. Russia has a large army and they are still fighting. I believe that it's possible to force Putin out of Ukraine with the political support of all the nations. He has no alternative. If he continues to mire in the war, there will be even heavier chaos in Russia. And now it's not about whether they produce tanks or not. I’m speaking in general: chaos in Russia will increase.

What is Putin afraid of? That some autonomous republics will demand even greater autonomy, for example, the Dagestanis. They don't feel good among Russians. I'll tell you one thing. I was a soldier during the Warsaw Treaty Organization. I remember how Russians were treated during exercises back in the Soviet Army and how they treated representatives of other peoples, for example, Kazakhs, Turkmens. They were also in this army. So they were always treated like second-class people, the worst. I saw how Russian officers beat soldiers from Kazakhstan. It's not the best way to build an empire, it's a bad way to build friendship. Unfortunately, I have seen it all.

– Finally. Will we win?

– We're winning. Victory depends on the two big players. At the moment we are winning because the Ukrainian soldiers are fighting very well. I will tell you honestly, I did not think that the Ukrainians would perform such feats on the battlefield. I really like their army now, because in addition to the classic, traditional military operations, they know how to behave creatively, unconventionally, they know how to do unexpected things. It's hard to believe that it is possible, but they are doing it. Great army, great people. We are winning and I think we will win.

– Will Belarus be free from the Lukashenka regime?

– This is the next step. I believe that after Putin leaves, Lukashenka will be forced to flee. The Belarusian people do not accept him. The Belarusian people want to join Europe. The Belarusian people are to join Europe.

If you like this article, you can support the website Charter97.org

MULTI-CURRENCY ACCOUNT FOR ASSISTANCE:

Bank's name: Bank Millennium S.A.
Address: ul. Stanislawa Zaryna, 2A, 02-593, Warszawa
IBAN: PL 97 1160 2202 0000 0002 1671 1123
SWIFT: BIGBPLPW
Name of the account holder: Fundacja “KARTA ‘97”
Purpose/title of payment: Donation for statuary aims

You can contact us by the e-mail [email protected]