Today Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and the Mayor of Vilnius Remigijus Šimašius held a working meeting. Head of the Belarusian Council of Culture Aliaksandr Chahouski also joined the meeting. Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya thanked the Mayor for the active support of Belarusians for a year and a half now, namely for practical help to relocatees, multiple solidarity actions in the capital of Lithuania (white-red-white flags on city buildings and illumination), and his firm position on the situation in Belarus and the region. Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Mr. Šimašius has been actively speaking up against any attempts to discriminate Belarusians.
During the meeting, the parties discussed several issues relating to the support for Belarusians:
– The national leader of Belarus raised an issue regarding the registration of relocatees in Lithuania – without such registration, they are not able to open companies and start businesses. She also spoke of the importance of supporting the Belarusian Gymnasium in Vilnius, attended by many children who had to leave their country with their parents after August 2020.
– Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya proposed to launch in Vilnius a social campaign #BelarusWithUkraine dedicated to showing solidarity with Ukrainians on behalf of the Belarusians.
– Discussed with the Mayor and the Belarusian Council of Culture possible joint cultural projects between Belarusians and Lithuanians in Vilnius, including, based on a shared historical past, the support for the International Week of Belarusian Culture in July 2022.
