UWC calls to support Belarus Freedom Day

March 25, 2024.  On Belarus Freedom Day, the Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) calls upon the international community to support the Belarusian people in their pursuit of freedom, liberty, and dignity. Today the people of Belarus live under the illegitimate, dictatorial, and Kremlin-controlled regime of Aleksandr Lukashenko. Belarus Freedom Day highlights the democratic legacy of the first independent Belarusian state, the Belarusian National Republic, established in 1918 after centuries of Russian domination.   

The international community must support the Belarusian people in their struggle for freedom and sovereignty of their country from the Kremlin-controlled tyrannical Lukashenko regime, which is complicit in Russia’s criminal and genocidal war against Ukraine.  

“Since February 24, 2022, Lukashenko’s Belarus has enabled Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine. The Belarusian dictator allowed Russia to station its army and wage its military operations against Ukraine. Today, Lukashenko continues to support the Russian terrorist state with military aid, provides infrastructure to train Russian conscripts, and operates a network of Russian indoctrination camps for abducted Ukrainian children that are being held in Belarus. It’s imperative for the international community to hold the Lukashenko dictatorship accountable via an international tribunal, alongside Putin and his accomplices,” stated UWC President Paul Grod.  

Following a brutal and systemic crackdown on all sectors of Belarusian society after the Belarusian people’s peaceful popular uprising against the fraudulent 2020 presidential “election,” the Lukashenko regime has become a Stalinist police state that ruthlessly suppresses dissent, controls media, and serves as a pawn in Putin’s imperialist schemes. The European Union, the United States, Canada, and most global democracies have sanctioned the Belarusian regime and have declared Lukashenko an illegitimate leader.      

The Belarusian democratic movement and civil society continue courageously their pursuit of a free Belarus. In Ukraine, hundreds of Belarusian volunteers from the Kastus Kalinouski Regiment are fighting for the freedom and sovereignty of Ukraine against the deadly Russian aggressor.   

“On Belarus Freedom Day, the UWC recommits to stand with the people of Belarus in their struggle for freedom and dignity against modern Russian imperialism. There cannot be a safe and secure Ukraine and Europe without a free and democratic Belarus. Like Ukraine, Belarus is Europe and must take its rightful place among free European nations,” Grod added.    

“We call upon the international community to take strong action to support the people of Belarus and upon Ukrainian communities worldwide to support the Belarusian people in their pursuit of freedom and democracy,” concluded Grod.