Скриншот трансляции
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya called on the international community to step up support for Belarusian political prisoners and people affected by repression. She made the statement at a press conference in Vilnius with political prisoners released in December.
Tsikhanouskaya thanked the US administration for its efforts to secure the release of political prisoners, including President Donald Trump, Special Envissary John Coale, and other representatives of the American side. She also expressed gratitude to the European Union and all countries that have maintained a principled position over the years. Separate thanks were extended to Ukraine. According to Tsikhanouskaya, the transfer of political prisoners to Ukraine came as a surprise.
“As you know, of the 123 people released, 87 arrived in Poland and two in Germany.
Twenty-eight people arrived in Lithuania, including 20 via Ukraine.
Lithuania also received seven people with foreign or dual citizenship, who are being assisted by their respective states.
The transfer of a large group of people via Ukraine was unexpected, but Ukraine received them with great warmth and provided maximum assistance. I want to thank the Ukrainian side, first of all President Zelenskyy personally and his Office, as well as the Main Directorate of Intelligence and personally Kyryla Budanava, and also Ukrainian civil society.
Ukraine, which itself is at war, demonstrated an incredible level of solidarity. We faced a very difficult task of transporting the released people to the territory of the European Union, where assistance had already been prepared. Here I want to separately note the support of Poland, Lithuania, the United States and, of course, Ukraine. This was especially difficult because 20 people were taken out without any documents. Here in Lithuania, the released individuals have already received basic assistance and are preparing for the legalization process,” she said.
Tsikhanouskaya also thanked Belarusian organizations and initiatives, as well as representatives of the democratic forces, who took part in receiving former political prisoners in Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania.
“I would like to particularly note the work of Belarusian initiatives, volunteers, human rights defenders and international partners — first of all Freedom House, the International Humanitarian Fund, Viasna, the Belarusian Association of Journalists, Volnyya, BYSOL, Disident.by, the Belarusian Human Rights House, the Belarusian Passport Center, and the Lithuanian Red Cross. This was our first experience of such close cooperation.
I thank the United Transitional Cabinet and Volha Zazulinskaya, who coordinated a large part of the work, as well as Sviatlana Shatsilina, head of our mission in Kyiv, who accompanied the released people all the way to Vilnius,” she said.
“In two days, Belarusians raised more than €250,000 in assistance for the released. I am impressed by this level of solidarity. These funds will help provide people with the most basic necessities, but even this is not enough. We therefore appeal to international partners to increase support for assistance to those repressed through the International Humanitarian Fund and Belarusian human rights defenders,” Tsikhanouskaya added.