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Tsikhanouskaya: Peace on Kyiv’s terms would let Belarusians dismantle Lukashenko from within

15.05.2025 16:00
A Ukraine-first ceasefire deal would give Belarusians their best chance to “take the regime apart from the inside,” opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said on Thursday at the Impact ’25 conference.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.EPA/RONALD WITTEK

Tsikhanouskaya accused Alyaksandr Lukashenko of turning Belarus into “a launchpad for Russia’s invasion” and said political prisoners still believe a democratic state will one day “pull them out of jail.”

“Peace at any cost is surrender. A deal on Ukraine’s terms opens the door for a free Belarus—and we’re ready to walk through it, but we need allies,” she tweeted.

Her remarks came as Ukrainian and Russian envoys gathered in Istanbul for the first face-to-face ceasefire talks in three years.

“If those talks succeed on Kyiv’s conditions, Belarusians will rise again,” she said.

“We are not sitting idly for five years; we weaken the regime and build civil society—but we cannot do it alone,” she told the audience, which later in the day will hear from former U.S. president Barack Obama.

Impact ’25 runs 15-16 May in Poznań, assembling political, tech and business leaders ahead of Poland’s presidential vote on Sunday.

(jh)

Source: PAP