Lukashenko says he has ‘no regrets’ about Belarus helping Russia to invade Ukraine
Lukashenko says he has ‘no regrets’ about Belarus helping Russia to invade Ukraine
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Autocrat makes comment about support for ‘older brother’ Putin as Belarusians vote in ‘sham’ presidential election. Belarusian autocrat Alexander Lukashenko said he had “no regrets” about allowing Russia to use his country to invade Ukraine, amid condemnation of the “sham” presidential vote almost certain to extend his 31 years of authoritarian rule.
Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, said on Sunday that the vote was a “bitter day for all those who long for freedom and democracy”. “The people of Belarus had no choice. Instead of free and fair elections and a life without fear and arbitrariness, they experience oppression, repression and human rights violations on a daily basis,” she said, ahead of exit polls that showed Lukashenko winning 87.6% of the vote.
The EU’s chief diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said Sunday’s “sham election” had been “neither free, nor fair” and that the EU would maintain sanctions against the regime. Lukashenko, a 70-year-old former collective farm boss, has been in power since 1994. After the last elections in August 2020, he launched a brutal crackdown in response to the largest ever anti-government protests in Belarusian history. His international isolation deepened in 2022 when he made his country a launchpad for Russian president Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Speaking on Sunday, Lukashenko said he had “no regrets” about allowing his “older brother” Putin to use Belarus to invade Ukraine. “I do not regret anything,” he said in response to a question from AFP, during an often rambling press conference with international media that ran over four hours.
