Kyiv Joined the EU Sanctions on Belarus

Ukraine has joined the sanctions imposed by the European Union on Belarus for the presidential election’s falsification and violating human rights in the country. The European Parliament’s press service’s statement, published on Friday, 20 November, informs about this.

“On 2 October 2020, the (European) Council adopted a decision that added 40 natural persons to the list of private and legal persons under restrictive measures… The candidate countries – the Republic of Northern Macedonia, Montenegro, and Albania, the European Free Trade Association countries – Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway, as well as the European Economic Area members and Ukraine, joined this Council’s decision,” a European Union representative declared.

The organisation noted that these states “will ensure compliance of their national policies with this Council’s decision.”

To recap, the EU approved personal sanctions against Belarusian security forces and officials for the falsification during the presidential election and the repression of peaceful protesters on 2 October. On 6 November, the European Union officially imposed sanctions on Alexander Lukashenka and 14 other officials. In total, 55 representatives of the country’s leadership are currently on the so-called blacklist. They are forbidden to come to the EU and their accounts in European banks, if found, will be frozen.

The United Kingdom and Canada have also imposed economic restrictions on persons (including Lukashenka) who were involved in the human rights abuses in Belarus.

Bohdan Marusyak