Фото: president.gov.ua
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that he does not intend to stop at sanctions against Alyaksandr Lukashenka. Restrictions may also affect his inner circle. He said this in an interview with Zerkalo.
“Sanctions policy is the first step, as I have said. We will develop it and are currently working on the legal basis for its continuation. This will concern not only Lukashenka. We are talking about his inner circle, about his sons, and so on. And there is another issue, as I have said: we will monitor all the military assistance that he provides [to Russia],” he said.
According to Zelenskyy, the sanctions recently imposed on Lukashenka, as well as changes in Ukraine’s policy toward Belarus, are a signal to official Minsk demonstrating Kyiv’s attitude toward the further involvement of Belarus in the war.
“As for sanctions, Europeans who introduced restrictions, as well as many other countries, had long been approaching me. We, so to speak, had our own ‘red lines’ on this issue. We are now demonstrating through political steps our attitude toward the fact that he is being drawn into the war and is helping Putin. But these are exclusively political or economic steps, which, by the way, do not concern the finances of ordinary Belarusians. The issue concerns only this one individual.
Nevertheless, he must understand this: Europeans are approaching us, we are monitoring the situation, and we will continue the relevant policy if Lukashenka does not come to his senses and stop,” he said.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy did not give a definitive answer to the question of whether criminal proceedings would be initiated against Lukashenka in Ukraine.
“This is a question for other agencies. I will not speak about it for now, but all relevant bodies will also be working in this direction,” he added.
Ukraine also intends to convey its position on Alyaksandr Lukashenka to the American side, which is holding talks with him.
“We did not raise the issue of Lukashenka with the American side because we saw that the Americans were inclined to find communication with him and achieve results through diplomatic means. We will now join this track and will discuss with the United States that this cannot be the case, that he supports the Russian regime — supports it through war, not just geopolitically. He helps kill civilians. We have evidence, we have all of this mapped out, everything is recorded on video and so on: how ‘Shaheds’ entered from the territory of Belarus with the help of relay transmitters. This is a crime, because they were helping the aggressor — that is a fact. After these strikes, civilians were killed. That is, for us, this is a crime. And now we will deal with the legal component of these crimes,” he said.
Zelenskyy is generally not opposed to the fact that the United States is holding talks with Lukashenka. He also welcomed the release of political prisoners as a result. However, the Ukrainian president does not support the lifting of sanctions against Minsk.
The full interview can be read here.