Did Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko propose launching nuclear weapons against Poland? No, that's not true: Lukashenko never said that and the sound in a video claiming to show the Belarusian leader making such a statement has been altered.
The claim originated from a video (archived here) published on TikTok by mirandichek on June 7, 2023. The video shows the Belarusian leader allegedly saying: "We should not talk, we should use nuclear weapons against, let's say, Poland." (Translated from Russian into English by Lead Stories staff).
The text on the video, also translated from Russian by Lead Stories staff, reads:
Using nuclear weapons 😳 😫
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Wed Jun 14 08:37:35 2023 UTC)
The images briefly shown in the TikTok video are taken from an interview that Alexander Lukashenko gave to NBC News' Keir Simmons on October, 14, 2022, in which the Belarusian President spoke about the war in Ukraine, the Russian President, and the possibility of nuclear weapons being used by Russia. In the interview, Lukashenko said that it was not Putin's goal to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine (at the 4:16 mark) and urged for a peaceful resolution of the conflict (at the 5:46 mark). "We need to look for ways to a peaceful solution to this conflict. It is beneficial for all, including the United States," he added, never making the statement claimed in the TikTok video. With regard to Poland, Lukashenko said in the interview that Warsaw was "initiating" the push to use nuclear weapons and was "provoking" the United States into action.
In the TikTok video, bits and pieces of what he actually said have been isolated, taken out of context and juxtaposed, leading viewers to falsely believe that Lukashenko had suggested using nuclear weapons against Poland.
