July 10, Pozirk. Alaksandar Łukašenka wants western sanctions to be lifted without any real change, yet restrictions must be maintained, Belarusian opposition leader Śviatłana Cichanoŭskaja told diplomats from 22 countries yesterday in Vilnius, her aide Franak Viačorka told Pozirk.
Ending reprisals and releasing all political prisoners will constitute “the first step toward the national dialogue that Belarusian society so desperately needs,” the politician stressed.
Denmark, which took over the presidency of the Council of the European Union for six months on July 1, hosted the closed briefing at its embassy. It brought together diplomats from Armenia, Canada, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States as well as the European Commission.
Cichanoŭskaja’s husband, opposition activist Siarhiej Cichanoŭski and 13 other prisoners were pardoned on June 21. The release followed a meeting in Minsk between Alaksandar Łukašenka and Keith Kellogg, US President Donald Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine.
Minsk has reportedly been engaged in negotiations with Washington since mid-2024 and has pardoned more than 300 imprisoned regime critics since then, yet human rights defenders are pushing for the release of more than 1,150 political prisoners still held behind bars in Belarus.
