Belarusian autocrat Alexander Lukashenko said he had “no regrets” about allowing Russia to use his country to invade Ukraine, amid condemnation of the “sham” presidential vote that extended his 31 years of authoritarian rule. Speaking on Sunday, Lukashenko said he had “no regrets” about allowing his “older brother” Vladimir Putin to use Belarus to launch the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, said the vote was a “bitter day for all those who long for freedom and democracy”. She added: “The people of Belarus had no choice. Instead of free and fair elections and a life without fear and arbitrariness, they experience oppression, repression and human rights violations on a daily basis.”
Lukashenko, who faced no serious challenge from the four other candidates on the ballot, took 86.8% of the vote, according to initial results. The EU’s chief diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said the election had been “neither free, nor fair” and that the EU would maintain sanctions against the regime.
During a rambling press conference that ran over four hours, Lukashenko declined to say if this would be his last election, adding that he was “not about to die”. He denied that any of his three sons would want to succeed him, and said he was “totally against a woman doing this job” as president.
Lukashenko also denied that the recent release of political prisoners was an attempt to build bridges with the west. More than 250 political prisoners have been freed since last July, although 1,250 remain in jail. “I don’t give a damn about the west,” he said.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the Belarusian opposition leader in exile, called the election “a sham designed to tighten oppression” and “a farce built on fear, repression and lies”. Up to half a million Belarusians are thought to have fled the country after the brutal repression of 2020.
