Poland wants sanctions for sending Ukrainian children to Belarus

Andrzej Sados, Poland’s Permanent Representative to the EU, informed the ambassadors of the other 26 EU nations of Belarus’ complicity in the kidnapping and unauthorized deportation of Ukrainian children. Poland also demanded that the Belarussian government face EU sanctions.

Sados said that the data came from a letter sent by Paviel Latuska, a representative of the opposition-led interim government in Belarus.

According to the letter, 2,000 kids were sent to sanatoriums and summer camps in Belarus, largely from the occupied parts of Ukraine. A charity foundation of the Belarusian Aleksei Talai and the Donetsk social group “Dolfinins” are responsible for the unlawful deportations of Ukrainian children over the entire region of Belarus.

Latushka claims that many children from Ukraine were sent to the “Dubrava” camp owned by the state-owned Belaruskalij. The company, which mines and processes potash, is already subject to EU and U.S. sanctions.

Latuska draws attention to the fact that Belaruskalij is aiding war crimes by taking part in the removal of kids from the seized Ukrainian territory. A Minsk activist in the opposition claims that loosening sanctions would “indirectly increase the possibility of financing aggression against Ukraine.” Any efforts to relax EU sanctions on Belarusian potash, which is used to make fertilizers, are fiercely opposed by him.

Polish officials, according to Ambassador Sados, would not consent to any lifting of EU sanctions against Belarus.

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