MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd September, 2021) The United Nations must be more active on the EU-Belarusian border, and the European Union should put more sanctions to Belarus, Latvian Foreign Ministry Parliamentary Secretary Zanda Kalnina-Lukasevica said on Thursday.
"We have requested the UN High Commissioner for refugees to be more active and to stop these actions of Belarus," the Latvian official said during the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs discussion of the European Union's border with Belarus.
At the same time, the union and "likeminded countries" should keep up pressure by applying additional sanctions to Belarus, Kalnina-Lukasevica added.
Relations between Minsk and the West sharply deteriorated following the Belarusian presidential election in August 2020, whose results sparked massive opposition protests. Canada, the EU, the United States, and the United Kingdom have imposed sanctions against Belarusian officials and enterprises, blaming Minsk for human rights violations. In addition, the EU placed economic sanctions on Belarus in late June after Belarus forced a Ryanair flight with an opposition activist on board to land in Minsk.
