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Alexander Lukashenko
Photo: Uncredited / dpa
Belarus closes its borders with EU members Poland and Lithuania.
In addition, border controls with neighboring Ukraine are tightened.
The ruler Alexander Lukashenko announced on Thursday that he was "forced" to take the measures, it said.
Military maneuvers with NATO troops are currently being held in Lithuania and Ukraine.
At the same time, the Belarusian army is training with Russian forces in western Belarus at the EU border.
According to Lukashenko, this maneuver is now being extended.
Given the current situation, there will be a second phase, he said.
The exercise was originally supposed to end on Friday next week.
EU Parliament wants direct sanctions against Lukashenko
The European Parliament has meanwhile spoken out in favor of direct sanctions against Lukashenko.
The EU is currently preparing sanctions - but it has so far been unclear whether Lukashenko will also be on this list.
To this end, the parliamentarians passed a corresponding motion for a resolution on Thursday in Brussels.
The punitive measures are therefore intended to target those responsible for election fraud and the suppression of peaceful protests.
At the same time, the EU parliamentarians indirectly recognized the opposition member Svetlana Tichanovskaya as the temporary representative of Belarus.
The 38-year-old competed against Lukashenko in the election on August 9.
The opposition thinks she is the real winner.
But the president had 80.1 percent of the vote and wants to take up his sixth term in the autumn.
Tichanovskaya fled Belarus and is now in the EU country Lithuania.
She initiated the civil society coordination council for a peaceful change of power.
Almost all leading members are either in custody or abroad because Lukashenko takes massive action against the body.
The EU parliamentarians have now decided to view the Coordination Council as a temporary representation of the people of Belarus.
EU foreign affairs representative Josep Borrell had only said on Tuesday that Lukashenko would not be recognized as the legitimate president of the former Soviet republic.
The EU Parliament also expressed itself accordingly in the resolution.
The EU states had already not recognized the election result.
Lukashenko said on the evening, according to the state agency Belta, that the election was held in accordance with the law in Belarus.
"We don't need recognition."
Borrel's spokesman Peter Stano told the German Press Agency (dpa) on Thursday that Tichanovskaya would come to Brussels on Monday for a meeting with the EU foreign ministers.
Less than six weeks after the presidential election, Lukashenko's apparatus is increasingly brutal against those who think differently.
Masked uniformed men who do not wear any identification mark arrest citizens every day.
Dozens of lawyers published a video clip in which they criticized the total arbitrariness and the "criminal" actions of the authorities.
The EU complained that there was a very active disinformation policy in Belarus, for example.
Above all, the Russian state broadcaster RT (formerly Russia Today) plays a major role, it was said from EU circles.
The massive crackdown on journalists is also worrying.
In August alone, 150 journalists were arrested in Belarus.
Several reporters, including those from foreign media, had their accreditation withdrawn.
Since the presidential election in Belarus on August 9th, there have been protests every day.
Lukashenko had 80.1 percent of the vote and now wants to take up a sixth term.
The security forces crack down on protesters.
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pgo / dpa / Reuters
