Lukashenko regime contributed to illegal deportation of Ukrainian children - Borrell

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said this in a statement released by the European External Relations Service on Thursday, August 8, Ukrinform reports.

The statement was issued on the eve of the fourth anniversary of the rigged presidential elections in Belarus in August 2020.

According to the statement, besides political, military and logistical support, "it has contributed to the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children from the territories of Ukraine temporarily occupied by Russia."

The statement also says that the Belarusian authorities continue "a massive campaign of violence and intimidation against its own people." There are around 1,400 political prisoners currently in detention. They represent only a fraction of the thousands of individuals who have been in and out of politically motivated detention since 2020. Lukashenko launched a total crackdown against "the Belarusian civil society, human rights defenders, free media and journalists, political opponents."

For all this, the EU has imposed several rounds of sanctions against the regime and its supporters.

According to research published by Yale University, more than 2,400 children from Ukraine aged between six and 17 years old have been taken to 13 facilities across Belarus since Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine says that more than 19,000 Ukrainian children have been deported and/or forcibly relocated.

The European Union called on the Russian and Belarusian authorities to immediately return to Ukraine the children abducted from the temporarily occupied territories and reminded the totalitarian regimes in both countries of international responsibility for the crimes committed.