Freedom for Ukraine means freedom for Belarus, says activist

Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya said that the fate of Ukraine is intertwined with that of her own country.
"There will be no free Belarus without a free Ukraine, and there will be no secure Ukraine without a free Belarus," she said on Monday at an event held in Berlin.
She said she was proud that hundreds of Belarusian volunteers were fighting alongside Ukraine.
At least 18 volunteers from Belarus, which is allied with Russia, have lost their lives defending Ukraine, she said.
Meanwhile the fight continues in their home country as well, where many activists have joined the opposition movement, Tikhanovskaya said.
"In 2022 alone, Belarusian railway partisans carried out 80 acts of sabotage to stop Russian troops."
These Belarusians, she said, had shown that they stood by Ukraine and did not support war. "That is why it is important to distinguish between [Alexander] Lukashenko's regime, which supports Russia's genocidal war, and the Belarusian people, who together with Ukrainians are resisting the warmongering empire," Tikhanovskaya said.
She said she knew that there were discussions in Germany about how to help Ukraine and that she believes that Ukraine must get everything it needs to win this war. "A free Belarus is one of these basic requirements," Tikhanovskaya said.
Lukashenko has held power in the former Soviet republic for more than a quarter of a century and has been called "Europe's last dictator".
The EU stopped recognising him as head of state after the 2020 elections which were widely seen as manipulated. There was a violent crackdown on the ensuing protests.
Many people saw Tikhanovskaya as the winner of the presidential election in August 2020. She lives in exile, having been sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Since the vote, Lukashenko has since been dependent on Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian troops have used Belarus to deploy in the war on Ukraine.