The exiled leader of Belarus\u2019 democratic opposition is warning the United States that abandoning Ukraine in its fight against Russia and its President Vladimir Putin would threaten the security of all of Eastern Europe. <\/p>\n
\u201cWithout free and independent and safe Ukraine, there will be no safe Belarus. But also vice versa. Without free Belarus, there will be constant threat to all our neighbors in the whole region,\u201d she added. <\/p>\n
Tsikhanouskaya\u2019s husband was imprisoned after announcing he would challenge Belarus\u2019 longtime leader, Alexander Lukashenko, in the 2020 presidential election. She ultimately ran in his place in an election widely considered fraudulent. <\/p>\n
Tsikhanouskaya fled with her children to Lithuania in the same year, after Lukashenko\u2019s government, with aid from Russia, forcefully stamped down pro-democracy protests. <\/p>\n
Since Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Lukashenko has deepened ties with Putin, and Belarus \u2013 a former Soviet nation \u2013 has become a key ally and strategic partner in the fight, with Russian forces using Belarus as a launchpad for invading Kyiv. <\/p>\n
This week, Tsikhanouskaya traveled to Washington D.C. for meetings with lawmakers to advocate for increasing pressure on Lukashenko\u2019s regime and countering Putin, including continuing to provide military and security support to Ukraine. <\/p>\n
Her meetings with the State Department are the first of what both sides have described as a \u201ccomprehensive strategic dialogue\u201d between US officials and the exiled democratic leaders of Belarus. <\/p>\n
The United States can play a \u201ccrucial role\u201d in Belarusian pro-democracy efforts, Tsikhanouskaya said, but she expressed fear that a new American president could undo diplomatic progress. <\/p>\n
Responding to the presidential campaign of former President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly spoken warmly of dictators including Putin, she said she hoped he would be defeated in 2024. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe need [to] help Ukrainians to win this fight against Russia until the next elections in the USA,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n
The exiled leader of Belarus\u2019 democratic opposition is warning the United States that abandoning Ukraine in its fight against Russia and its President Vladimir Putin would threaten the security of all of Eastern Europe. \u201cWithout free and independent and safe Ukraine, there will be no safe Belarus. But also vice versa. Without free Belarus, there <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":12677,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12676","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}