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WARSAW, May 22 (AP) – A member of the Belarusian opposition movement urged the European Union on Monday to keep sanctions on Belarus’s state-run fertilizer producer, warning that lifting them would cost Alexander Lukashenko’s regime 15 billion-dollar windfall as it supports Russia’s war against Belarus over Ukraine.
Pavel Latushka, a former Belarusian culture minister now in exile in Poland, said he feared the EU might try to lift sanctions on Belaruskali, one of the world’s largest exporters of potash.
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Latushka leads an opposition group, the National Anti-Crisis Management Organization, which has been documenting what it says is Lukashenko’s involvement in a plan to deport Ukrainian orphans to Belarusian refugee camps.
The panel has been working to draw international attention to its findings in an attempt to block the so-called deportations and hold Lukashenko accountable.
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“Belaruskali is a company that finances the deportation of Ukrainian children,” Latushka, who was sentenced in absentia to 18 years in prison by a Belarusian court in March, told The Associated Press.
His call comes as EU foreign ministers meet for informal talks expected to focus on sanctions against Belaruskali and the Belarusian potash company that exports Belaruskali products.
“This is an opportunity for Lukashenko to generate at least $150 million a year in revenue, which he will spend on the war effort,” Latushka said.
The group claims Ukrainian orphans deported to Belarus undergo a process of Russification before being sent to Russia for adoption, which they say amounts to a violation of the Geneva Convention against war crimes.
Lukashenko’s government denies those claims.
Belarusian foreign ministry spokesman Anatoly Graz said: “The allegations that Belarus is involved in the forcible deportation of Ukrainian children look absolutely absurd and inappropriate even in the context of the usual allegations and demands made against us that have nothing to do with reality. .”department.
Latushka and his team are collecting evidence and presenting it to international organizations, hoping that the International Criminal Court will issue an arrest warrant for Lukashenko, as it did for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In March, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Putin and his children’s rights commissioner.
Judges in The Hague said they found “reasonable grounds to believe” that the pair had committed war crimes, in particular the illegal deportation and transfer of children from occupied Ukraine to Russia.
Belarus will take in more than 1,000 children aged 6-15 from the partially occupied Donbass in eastern Ukraine for “recuperation”, authorities say.
The first batch of 350 children arrived in Belarus in late April.
Authorities have allocated them at least four summer camps.
The officials did not specify how long the Ukrainian children would stay in Belarus, but said the decision was made at the presidential level.
Lukashenko’s press service said this underscored his “commitment to humanitarian and benevolent ideals for children in need of care and support”.
Within the framework of Belarus and the Union State of Russia, a special program aimed at resettling Ukrainian children was approved. Belaruskali provides financial support.
Children’s placement and logistics in Belarus are being handled by pro-government activist Aleksey Talai, a Paralympic athlete and founder of a charitable foundation.
“Belarus reassures children, helps and continues to provide support to areas affected by hostilities,” Talay said. (Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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