Belarusian opponent in exile Svetlana Tikhanovskaya on Thursday (February 24th) accused Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of "
high treason
" for having "
helped
" Putin's Russia launch its invasion of Ukraine.
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“
Russian military forces, with the help of the Lukashenko regime, launched strikes against Ukrainian cities.
These strikes were also launched from Belarusian territory
,” said Svetlana Tikhanovskaïa during a press conference at the Lithuanian Embassy in Paris.
"
This makes Belarus an aggressor state
" and "
one of the parties to this armed conflict
", she added.
"
This is high treason and an act of treachery against the interests of our people and the Republic of Belarus
," continued the opponent, saying that Alexander Lukashenko had "
lost the right to speak on behalf of the Belarusian people
".
“
From today, I take on the responsibility of representing the people and the Republic of Belarus
,” added Svetlana Tikhanovskaï, considered by Westerners to be the real winner of the August 2020 presidential election against the head of the Outgoing state Alexander Lukashenko.
"
We are ashamed of the role our country is playing in this war
," said Svetlana Tikhanovskaïa, addressing the Ukrainians.
Read alsoCrisis in Ukraine: high-risk maneuvers in Belarus
Paris on Thursday condemned Russia's use of the territory of its neighbor and Belarusian ally to carry out military operations against Ukraine and the European Union called on Belarus to "
not take part
" in the offensive.
Ukraine announced that Russian ground forces entered its territory from Russia and Belarus on Thursday morning.
According to Ukrainian border guards, Russian military units entered the Kyiv region on Thursday from Belarus to carry out an attack with Grad missiles on military targets.
