The Czech prime minister, whose country holds the presidency of the European Union (EU), admitted on his return from Kiev on Tuesday that Brussels is considering sanctions against Belarus, an ally of Russia, for its role in the conflict in Ukraine. .
Belarus says it does not want to be directly involved in the war, but allows Russian soldiers to be stationed in the country, which Russia used as a rear base for the February 24 invasion of Ukraine.
“We are now analyzing” […] the role of Belarus and the possible need to deal with it” with sanctions, Petr Fiala told reporters on his way back from Kiev, where he met several Ukrainian ministers on Monday.
On October 7, the Czech government announced that it would hold a joint meeting with the Ukrainian cabinet on the 31st of the same month in Kiev.
“Some sanctions against Belarus are already in place, but we cannot accept that Belarus supports Russia’s policies or that Russia circumvents the impact of sanctions through countries like Belarus,” Fiala added.
The EU has already imposed eight sanctions packages since the start of the invasion of Ukraine, mainly targeting industry and various political and financial figures.
“[A Rússia tem de estar] increasingly isolated. We know sanctions work, we see that in a lot of data and we need to continue at that level,” Fiala said.
“We have to understand that the attacks on Ukraine are being carried out from Belarus’ airspace and that Belarus supplies weapons to Russia,” Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky emphasized for his part.
In October, Minsk and Moscow announced a joint force and the Ukrainian military has expressed concern about the “growing threat” of a new Russian offensive from Ukraine’s northern neighbor, Belarus.
About 9,000 Russian soldiers and 170 tanks will be stationed in the country, according to the Belarusian Ministry of Defense.
Source: DN
