Russia not making excuses for special operation in Ukraine - Putin

MOSCOW. March 11 (Interfax) - Russia is not making excuses for the special operation in Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin said during talks with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko.

As he was speaking of reasons for the special operation in Ukraine, Lukashenko said, "If we hadn't done it a day before, believe me, a few days later we would have drained the cup to the dregs with huge losses. They were planning to not only attack Donbas, they also built positions for an attack on Belarus."

"Now the foreign mercenaries are moving along the Belarusian border towards the Chernobyl NPP. They want to cut off Russian forces, stab in the back, as I say, and that's for starters. Secondly, they want to strike on the positions of forces left here since the time of the Belarusian-Russian exercise. They are still hoping to drag us into this manslaughter so that we expose the western sector... They are not so simple. You and I have yet to guess what they are planning to do in Chernobyl. So, there is no need to make excuses to anyone," Lukashenko said.

"No one is making excuses," Putin said.