Foreign ministers of ‘Lublin Triangle’ urge Belarusian authorities to refrain from using force
The foreign ministers of the Lublin Triangle countries called on the Belarusian authorities to refrain from the use of force and to release all those detained during the protests. The statement was made by the foreign ministers of Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine, Linas Linkevičius, Jacek Czaputowicz and Dmytro Kuleba, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry’s press service informs.
The diplomats mentioned that, if necessary, they are open for any assistance or good offices in facilitating this dialogue.
The foreign ministers of the “Lublin Triangle” stressed that the well-being and prosperity of Belarus and its people are important for the entire Europe and specifically their region.
“We are all interested in continuing mutually beneficial dialogue as well as cooperation based upon democratic values and focused on creating conditions for a common and stable future,” the statement says.
On August 9, presidential elections were held in Belarus. According to the preliminary results, incumbent Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko gained 80.23% of the vote, while the opposition candidate, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, had 9.9%. Tikhanovskaya did not recognize the results.
Thousands of people quickly took to the streets of Minsk to protest what they saw as official manipulations of the vote. According to the Associated Press, the protesters “faced rows of riot police in black uniforms who moved quickly to disperse the demonstrators, firing flash-bang grenades and beating them with truncheons.”