EU urged not to forget Belarus as bloc prepares sanctions

BRUSSELS (AP) — Belarus opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya appealed Wednesday to the European Union not to forget the plight of ordinary citizens and political prisoners in the former Soviet country, as the EU prepares new sanctions to prevent a security crisis at its borders blamed on President Alexander Lukashenko.

Tsikhanouskaya told EU lawmakers that “882 of my fellow citizens have been recognized to be in prison for exercising basic political rights people in the rest of Europe take for granted.” She urged the 27-country bloc not to recognize Lukashenko or his government, and to boost support to ordinary citizens.

“It is getting late. Since August 2020, there have been ample gestures and expressions of solidarity. Belarusians were praised for reigniting their faith in democracy and human dignity,” she said. “Is it not the turn of Europeans to demonstrate their commitment to those values with action?”

Her remarks come as the EU prepares to unveil a new raft of sanctions against Belarus –- it’s fifth package of travel bans and asset freezes — targeting Lukashenko and his associates, government members, security forces, court officials and other authorities.

This time, though, the measures will also hit air carriers and travel groups accused by the EU of helping to bring migrants to Belarus with the aim of helping them cross into Europe, chiefly through Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, according to a draft text seen by The Associated Press.

The EU says Lukashenko is carrying out a “hybrid attack” using migrants to destabilize the bloc in revenge for sanctions targeting him over contested elections last year that won Belarus’s hardline leader yet another term in office and the security crackdown on peaceful protestors that followed.

With that in mind, the EU is...