Pavel Latushka and deputy of the head of the NAM Vladimir Astapenko meet Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde
The foreign minister said that Sweden assessed the actions of the Lukashenka regime in connection with the war in Ukraine as an aggressor. Based on its complicity in the crime against the Ukrainian people, a fifth package of sanctions against Russia is planned to be adopted in the near future, which will include a block concerning the Lukashenko regime for aiding the war against Ukraine. Thus, 70% of Belarus’s exports to the EU will already be subject to sanctions.
Pavel Latushka informed about the attitudes of the Belarusian society towards the war, stressing that 97% of the urban population of Belarus is against the war. Similar sentiments are widespread among the military, which is an important factor to deter the regime from using Belarusian military personnel in a land operation against Ukraine.
The minister said that the Swedish Prosecutor General’s Office had opened a criminal case for war crimes committed in Ukraine. Citizens of Belarus already have the right to submit directly to the Attorney General via e-mail information confirming the complicity of the Lukashenka regime and its accomplices in war crimes against Ukraine.
The Swedish Foreign Minister reiterated the position that Lukashenko was illegitimate. The interlocutors agreed that the illegitimate Lukashenko regime functionally posed a threat to Belarus' independence and threatened Ukraine’s territorial integrity and independence, as well as undermined regional security.
Pavel Latushko informed separately on the activity of the propaganda state institutions of Belarus to cover the war in Ukraine in a biased, untrue and distorted way and also on the plans and concrete actions of the NAM to prevent the influence of propaganda on the public opinion in Belarus.
The meeting resulted in an agreement to maintain contacts on a regular basis.