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The president of Belarus, the target of six weeks of massive protests demanding his resignation, announced today that he will put troops on high alert and close the country’s borders with Poland and Lithuania.
Alexander Lukashenko’s decision reinforces the repeated message that the wave of protests is driven by the West, as it faces harsh criticism from the European Union and the United States.
“We are forced to withdraw the troops from the streets, put the army on high alert and close the borders in the west, mainly with Lithuania and Poland,” Lukashenko said at an official women’s forum in Minsk. Lukashenko also said that the Belarusian border with Ukraine will be strengthened.
“I don’t want my country to be at war. Furthermore, I do not want Belarus, Poland and Lithuania to become a theater of military operations in which our problems are not solved, ”he said.
“So from now on, in front of this most beautiful, advanced and patriotic people’s hall, I want to appeal to the people of Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine: stop your crazy politicians, don’t let the war start,” he said.
Lukashenko did not mention neighboring Latvia, which, like Poland and Lithuania, are members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). In the same forum, Lukashenko said that Belarus does not need any country to recognize its elections, in response to the resolution of the European Parliament, which does not accept the results of the presidential elections on August 9, which Lukashenko won with 80% of the votes and that started a wave of protests.
“We carry out the elections in accordance with the Constitution and the laws of our country and we do not need anyone’s recognition. The elections were held and they are legitimate, ”he declared, according to the BELTA agency.
In today’s session, the European Parliament agreed that it will not recognize Lukashenko as president when the current term ends on November 5, following elections that “violate all international standards” and called on the European Union to impose sanctions on the president. .
“I swear there was no lie in the elections. It is impossible to falsify 80% of the elections, ”Lukashenko added. Also on Thursday, the spokesman for the head of European diplomacy announced that Belarusian opponent Svetlana Tikhanovskaia is expected in Brussels on Monday for a meeting with the European Union’s foreign ministers.
The opponent announced that he is drawing up a list of members of the regime’s security forces responsible for the violence and arbitrary arrests, with a view to possible prosecution in the future.
Belarus has been the scene of several demonstrations since August 9, when Alexander Lukashenko won a sixth presidential term, in elections considered fraudulent by the opposition and part of the international community.
In the first days of the protests, the police detained some 7,000 people and repressed hundreds in a forceful way, prompting international protests and the threat of sanctions.
The United States, the European Union and several neighboring Belarus countries rejected Lukashenko’s recent electoral victory and condemned the police crackdown, urging Minsk to enter into a dialogue with the opposition.
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