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By Reuters
KYIV – Ukraine has frozen contact with Belarus and joined the European Union to condemn elections to its northern neighbor as neither loose nor fair, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Friday.
Kuleba said there is no explanation as to why to absolutely break diplomatic relations, but added that Ukraine would take a resolution on the application of sanctions to Belarus after seeing what the EU would do.
“We have suspended all contacts until the stage is stabilized in Belarus,” he said at a briefing.
Ukraine has been very cautious in commenting on political turmoil in Belarus, a former Soviet republic, since the presidential election on 9 August provoked mass protests against veteran leader Alexander Lukashenko.
While Belarus is Moscow’s best historical friend and close friend, Lukashenko has made a non-unusual cause with Ukraine by refusing to acknowledge Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and has hosted talks about the confrontation in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine.
His wary parties accuse Lukashenko of manipulating the vote to make his 26-year reign greater. He denies voter fraud. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called for new elections, but said Belarusians must decide on their leader.
Belarus replied that he did want the council of Ukraine, belarusian media reported tut. by.
Ukraine has temporarily banned foreigners from entering the country to involve the spread of COVID-19, however, Kuleba said Belarusians wishing to escape their political crisis may be exempted and unload access permits.
Ukraine was angry when Minsk did not extradited an organization of Russians detained in Belarus in July when, first of all, it was receptive to the idea. Belarus had accused the men of seeking to destabilize the country, marking a rare diplomatic dispute with Russia that was later repaired.
At the time, Russia said the men were security agents heading to a third country. Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that the men had been lured to Belarus through a Ukrainian-American intelligence operation.
Ukraine has denied the lifestyle of such an intelligence operation, but has sought to extradite 28 members of the group, suspecting that men are fighting alongside Russian-backed separatists in the Donbass. Belarus first agreed to cooperate in the agreement with Ukraine, but instead handed the men over to Russia this month.
(Editing through Mark Heinrich)
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