13 July 2021, Tuesday, 17:56 126

Full-Fledged Official Negotiations Between Zelenskyy And Belarusian Oppositionist Tsikhanouskaya Were Not Planned - Presidential Office

Редактор: Daria Zubkova

The Presidential Office states that full-fledged official negotiations between Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Belarusian oppositionist Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya were not planned or carried out.

The media adviser to the head of the Presidential Office, Mykhailo Podoliak, announced this to Ukrainian News Agency.

Earlier, Tsikhanouskaya said that she was in touch with the Ukrainian authorities, including on July 6-7 she crossed paths with Zelenskyy in Lithuania.

"We did not have official meetings, but you know how much we feel Ukraine's support," she said.

The Presidential Office responded by saying that the meeting of the politicians was not planned.

“As far as can be judged about this, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya herself said that she was with the President of Ukraine at the same event. Can this be called the word "intersected"? Depends on the point of view. Full-fledged negotiations or other similar official communication was not planned or carried out," Podoliak said.

According to him, there were no meaningful negotiations between Zelenskyy and Tsikhanouskaya in Vilnius.

"It is extremely important to correctly assess anything said by political actors. In reality, there were no meaningful and even less formal contacts between the President of Ukraine and Mrs. Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya," said Advisor to the Head of the Presidential Office Andrii Yermak.

At the same time, in late January, the Foreign Ministers of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba, Lithuania Gabrielius Landsbergis and Poland Zbigniew Rau held the first online meeting of the Lublin Triangle, to which Tsikhanouskaya was invited.

Following the meeting, Kuleba said that the ministers discussed the current situation in Belarus, learned the vision of the situation by Tsikhanouskaya and expectations from the international community.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, presidential election was held in Belarus in August 2020, at which, with an alleged turnout of 84.05% of voters, 80.23% voted for Aleksandr Lukashenko, 9.9% - for Tsikhanouskaya, after which thousands of Belarusians began to take part in mass protests.

Ukraine believes that Lukashenko's inauguration does not mean recognition of him as the legitimate President of Belarus.

In May 2021, Belarus forcibly landed a Ryanair plane in Minsk en route from Athens (Greece) to Vilnius (Lithuania), allegedly due to a message about mining, escorting it with a MiG-29 combat aircraft, after which it detained the founder of the opposition NEXTA channel in Telegram Roman Protasevich,

After that, Ukraine stopped direct flights with Belarus, and also banned its planes from flying over its territory, and Belarusian planes over Ukrainian.

In July, the Cabinet of Ministers proposed to the National Security and Defense Council to impose sanctions against 52 citizens of Belarus involved in falsifying the results of the presidential election and violent suppression of peaceful protests, including Lukashenkщ's eldest son, Viktor.