Belarus leader, in U-turn, says annexed Crimea is legally Russian

FILE PHOTO: Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko speaks to migrants as he visits the transport and logistics centre Bruzgi on the Belarusian-Polish border, in the Grodno region, Belarus November 26, 2021. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko said on Tuesday that the Crimean Peninsula, annexed by Moscow from Ukraine in 2014, was legally Russian territory, RIA news agency reported, in a reversal of his public stance.

Belarus is a close ally of Russia, but did not recognise the peninsula as Russian after Moscow seized it in an annexation that drew condemnation and economic sanctions from the West.