EU proposes package similar to anti-Russian sanctions against Belarus

The European Union has proposed a new round of sanctions against Belarus for supporting Russia against the backdrop of a special operation in Ukraine, writes Bloomberg agency citing documents.

Suggested measures include:

Exceptions, as in the case of Russia, will relate to medicines, agricultural products and food, and benefits for related financial transactions involving persons subject to sanctions. The legislation will also allow the EU to prosecute anyone who helps circumvent sanctions imposed on Belarusian individuals and entities.

Approval of the proposed measures requires the support of all Member States. The EU is also working on a tenth round of sanctions against Russia, as well as a price cap on Russian oil products, and intends to enact both before the embargo goes into effect next week, the agency writes.

President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko has repeatedly stated that the Belarusian military does not participate in the Russian special operation in Ukraine. At the beginning of March 2022, at a meeting with members of the Belarusian Security Council, he explained that Moscow had never raised the question of participating in hostilities before the republic. Subsequently, he again declared about this already in an interview with the Associated Press in May of the same year.

In October Lukashenka declaredthat Minsk still takes part in the NWO in Ukraine, although it does not send its military there. The head of state stressed that the purpose of this participation is to prevent the conflict from spreading to the territory of Belarus, as well as to prevent attacks on the country from Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.