Photo from UNIAN, Viacheslav Ratynskyi

President Volodymyr Zelensky says that the project of a "Union State" involving Russia and Belarus, if implemented, would become a real threat to Ukraine.

Speaking with Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Zelensky noted that the de facto unification of the two states neighboring states will integrate their defense cooperation and exert serious pressure on Ukraine, 24 TV reports.

"We are observing how Russia and Belarus persistently cooperate with each other. They can include defense there, and then these countries will be able to exert serious pressure on us," the president is convinced.

He also noted that the creation of a "real union state" between Russia and Belarus is an obvious threat to Ukraine.

Read also"Major challenge": NSDC secretary on possible deployment of Russian troops in BelarusThe Union State is a confederal union of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus with a unified political, economic, military, customs, currency, legal, humanitarian, and cultural space being set up in phases.

The agreement on the founding of the Union State of Russia and Belarus was signed in Moscow on December 8, 1999. It entered into force on January 26, 2000, after the exchange of ratification instruments between the then-acting President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, and President of the Republic of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko.

At the end of 2019, a roadmap for deeper integration of Belarus into the Union State was approved. At the same time, the position pursued by Lukashenko, who doesn't want to lose power as a result of his country's liquidation within the framework of the Union State, has stood on the way of completing the formation of the new state.