01 October 2020, Thursday, 18:22 121

Belarusian Embassy At Meeting At Foreign Ministry Called On Ukraine To Non-Interference In Country's Internal Affairs

Даша Зубкова

At a meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Belarusian Embassy called on Ukraine to non-interference in the internal affairs of the state.

The embassy has said this in a statement, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

"On October 1, a meeting of a representative of the Embassy of the Republic of Belarus in Ukraine took place in the Second Territorial Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine... Particular attention is paid to the fact that the Republic of Belarus does not accept interference in its internal affairs. At the same time, public recommendations and advice of Ukrainian officials, politicians and MPs on the organization of internal political life in the Belarusian state, assessments of the interaction of the Republic of Belarus with integration associations are incorrect, do not correspond to the spirit of good-neighborliness and are regarded precisely as an attempt to interfere in the internal affairs of the Republic of Belarus, and influence the choice of the Belarusian people," the statement reads.

The embassy called the interference, in particular, the statements of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Office of the President, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, the Verkhovna Rada.

"Numerous public statements by the leadership of Ukraine and a number of high-ranking Ukrainian officials about the internal political situation in the Republic of Belarus, the legitimacy of the President of the Republic of Belarus, the situation on the Belarusian-Ukrainian state border, calls for new elections of the President of the Republic of Belarus, discussion of the application of sanctions against the Republic of Belarus on far-fetched grounds are being considered as extremely unfriendly gestures on the part of Ukraine, which do not contribute to maintaining trust in the Belarusian-Ukrainian relations, and an attempt to interfere in the internal affairs of the Republic of Belarus," the statement reads.

The embassy also considers the more frequent calls of certain politicians and public figures to curtail economic cooperation between Ukraine and Belarus as harmful.

"The embassy emphasized the inadmissibility of encouraging and approving from Ukraine actions aimed at destabilizing the socio-political situation in Belarus and destroying the constructive format of the Belarusian-Ukrainian relations," the statement reads.

The embassy stressed that Belarus will independently cope with the current situation in the country and counts on Ukraine's objective and balanced position, which meets the spirit of good neighborliness and is based on the principles of mutual respect and non-interference in each other's internal affairs.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, on August 9, Belarus held a presidential election, at which, according to the Central Election Commission, the turnout was 84%, and the incumbent head of state Lukashenko, who has been heading the country since 1994, won with more than 80% of the votes.

Hundreds of thousands of people in Belarus continue to go out to protest actions, tens of thousands were detained during clashes with law enforcement officers, there are wounded and killed.

On September 23, the Presidential Administration of Belarus announced that Lukashenko's inauguration ceremony had taken place, although this event was not announced or broadcast live.

Ukraine believes that the secret "inauguration" of Lukashenko does not mean his recognition as the legitimate President of Belarus.