The EU will continue to support the Belarusian people and does not consider the government of Alexander Lukashenko to be legitimate, said EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell on the occasion of the second anniversary of the protests in Belarus that began after the August 9, 2020 elections.

“We reaffirm our unwavering support for the democratic aspirations of the Belarusian people. We reiterate that Alexander Lukashenko lacks democratic legitimacy,” said the statement released on Monday, August 8.

Borrell recalled the mass repressions unleashed by the regime in Minsk against Belarusians. There are now more than 1,200 political prisoners in the country, and that number is growing every day, he pointed out. Many members of the democratic opposition have been forced out and activists have been intimidated, including with death sentences, while the perpetrators of violence against civilians have yet to be brought to justice, Borrell added.

“We will continue to support international efforts to bring to justice those responsible for the use of violence in Belarus, taking into account the collection and preservation of evidence of human rights violations. We will not forget either the victims of the Lukashenko regime or its past and current crimes”, highlighted the head of European diplomacy.

He also denounced the role the Minsk regime is playing in Russia’s war against Ukraine. “When Russia launched its war of unprovoked and unjustified aggression against Ukraine, the Lukashenko regime became an accomplice of Putin against the will of the vast majority of the Belarusian people, allowing the Russian Federation to use the territory of Belarus to invade Ukraine, launch missiles and provide Moscow with full political and logistical support. Now the regime is persecuting Belarusians who oppose the war,” Borrell said.

He called on Minsk to stop cooperating with Russia in the war, as well as “immediately and unconditionally release and rehabilitate all political prisoners and stop the repression”.

“Our determination to support the people of Belarus remains unchanged. Since August 2020, the EU has allocated around €65 million in support of the people of Belarus. We are ready to mobilize our comprehensive €3 billion economic support plan euros as Belarus undergoes a democratic transition”, the supreme representative of the EU.