You're reading: Ukraine outraged at Belarus attack on Yanukovych

MINSK, April 26 (Reuters) - Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko sparked a diplomatic row with neighbouring Ukraine on Tuesday when he berated its president as "lousy" for excluding him from ceremonies marking the Chernobyl nuclear accident.

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry swiftly denounced Lukashenko’s attack on President Viktor Yanukovych, saying: "The offensive comments, which were without precedent, have aroused outrage."

A Ukrainian statement said such behaviour was tantamount to "dancing on the bones" of the victims of Chernobyl.

Lukashenko tore into Yanukovych within minutes of the Ukrainian leader appearing at the site of the Soviet reactor disaster alongside Russian President Dmitry Medvedev for a memorial ceremony to those who died from the radiation.

Asked by journalists why he did not attend a 25th anniversary conference in Kyiv last week and Tuesday’s ceremony in Chernobyl, the autocratic Lukashenko said: "Ask Yanukovich that question, why was the Belarussian president not present at these events?

"You should ask them. Unfortunately, today’s leadership in Ukraine is rather lousy," Interfax news agency quoted him as saying during a tour of areas affected by radiation fall-out from Chernobyl in 1986.

"They are simply scoundrels. So I don’t want to talk about all those Barrosos, other bastards and … others," he said.

EU officials confirmed last month that Ukraine had been told European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso would not attend last week’s international donors’ conference on Chernobyl in Kiev if Lukashenko was present.

ECCENTRIC LEADER

The eccentric leader, who has held power in the ex-Soviet republic since 1994, often uses undiplomatic language to berate his critics in the West.

But an attack on the leadership of neighbouring Ukraine, which seeks to steer an even course in relations with Belarus, is very unusual.

The United States and the European Union have blacklisted Lukashenko because of a police crackdown on an opposition rally against his flawed re-election on Dec. 19.

The Chernobyl reactor which exploded in 1986 is on Ukraine’s border with Belarus.

Both republics were part of the Soviet Union at the time.

Prevailing winds blew much of the radiation debris immediately across Belarus, forcing authorities to evacuate many of the people then living in the border areas.

"How can you talk about sanctions against a country that suffered more than anyone else from somebody else’s sloppiness? We need to be helped," Lukashenko said.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry denied there had been any politics involved in who took part in the Chernobyl-related ceremonies over the past week and it expressed regret at Lukashenko’s strong language on such a solemn occasion.

"Today any arguments and mutual accusations are tantamount to dancing on the bones," it said.

It said it hoped the Belarussian leadership would show responsibility and return soon to a "constructive" relationship with Ukraine and the European Commission.