Ukraine initiates declaration on Belarus at PACE

Chair of the Permanent Delegation of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, MP Elyzaveta Yasko (Servant of the People party faction) initiated the adoption of a declaration on the events in Belarus.
"I initiated the Belarus Declaration - a document where we assess the events in the neighboring country and offer a way out of the situation," Yasko posted on Facebook.

She noted that the declaration was supported by the majority of members of the Ukrainian delegation to the PACE. In addition, the document was signed by Ukraine's foreign partners who support freedom and democracy in Belarus: chair of the Estonian delegation Maria Jufereva-Skuratovski, chair of the Latvian delegation Inese Lībiņa-Egnere, chair of the Lithuanian delegation Algirdas Butkevičius, and chair of the United Kingdom delegation Sir Roger Gale.

In particular, the signatories state that the campaign for the election of the President of the Republic of Belarus, the vote on August 9, and the vote count "do not meet international election standards, were conducted with mass violations of citizens' rights and freedoms, and do not reflect the free will of the Belarusian people."

The document also condemns the use of violence against participants in peaceful assemblies in Belarusian cities.

The signatories call on the Belarusian authorities to immediately release all illegally detained participants in peaceful assemblies and insist on the beginning of a peaceful dialogue between the parties to the election process as soon as possible.

The declaration underscores that the signatories "welcome the independent investigation into the misuse of force against participants in peaceful assemblies; they express their readiness to facilitate dialogue between participants in the election process and provide a platform for such negotiations."

The document also warns the Russian Federation against interfering in the internal affairs of Belarus.

Mass protests against the falsification of vote results broke out in Belarus after the August 9 presidential election. Security forces have been brutally dispersing the protesters, using rubber bullets, stun grenades, and water cannons. More than 6,000 people have been detained since the beginning of the protests, several people have been killed.

On August 14, the Central Election Commission of Belarus declared incumbent president Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled the country since 1994, the winner of the election. According to the CEC, he got 80.08% of the vote, while his main rival Svetlana Tikhanovskaya got 10.09%.

The European Union did not recognize the results of the presidential election in Belarus and embarked on the imposition of sanctions on the country's officials involved in fraud and violence against protesters.