Belarus, Crimea and the Donbas: Belarusian attitudes to the post-maidan events in Ukraine

Abstract

This essay discusses the attitudes in Belarus towards the incorporation of Crimea into the Russian Federation and the war in the Donbas region. In general, Belarusian authorities refused to recognize Crimea as a part of Russia, and continue to consider this peninsula to be de jure a part of Ukraine. The war in the Donbas is seen more as a civil war than as a “Russian aggression” although the involvement of Russia is not denied. At the same time, the general public in Belarus justifies the incorporation of Crimea into the Russian Federation and believes that the Ukrainian authorities are most at fault for their inability to stop the war in the Donbas.