“Dear Rector Mogherini,
Dear Diplomats,
Students, friends,
A year ago, Russia attacked our sisters and brothers in Ukraine. It was a year of a million human tragedies and as many acts of everyday heroism. The war took thousands of Ukrainian lives and destroyed countless homes. These terrible crimes will never be forgiven and will never be forgotten.
What people do forget sometimes – is another war that is still going on. I'm talking about Lukashenka's war against the people of Belarus.
He started this war long before the presidential elections of 2020. In the beginning, it was his blatant disrespect for people's lives during the COVID-19 pandemics that provoked people's indignation.
Then, two months before the elections, the dictator began his brutal attack on Belarusian democracy by arresting activists and politicians. Among them was my husband, Siarhei Tsikhanouski, who had just announced his intention to run for office.
I felt that I couldn't stand aside. So I ran for the presidency instead of him. The regime registered me as a candidate just to humiliate me and make me a laughing stock. But the joke was on them.
On August 9th 2020, Lukashenka lost the elections, but he went ahead and proclaimed himself president. Dozens of thousands, who protested against this blatant electoral fraud, were detained, beaten, tortured and even raped in jails. Ten people were killed by KGB and police.
Today thousands of people are in prison for thought crimes. They are subjected to physical violence and psychological torture. They are denied basic human rights and contact with others. They receive no letters, no parcels, food or money transfers. Special tags are used to mark political prisoners, so the jailers know whom to torture more diligently.
My husband Siarhei Tsikhanouski is one of these political prisoners. Yesterday, he was sentenced to 1,5 years extra to his 18 year sentence. He is held in solitary confinement, and my children have not seen him for three years. State propaganda spreads the rumour that he is dead.
Moreover, yesterday, the prosecutor demanded 19 years in a penal colony for me. The regime is doing everything it can to break him and put pressure on me. But I know that all this pressure will never break him, and it will never break me.
And it will never break the will of Belarusian people to live in free, democratic and a European Belarus.
Dear friends,
Lukashenka would have never dared to wage this mass scale war against Belarusians without an active support from Moscow. The so-called “pacification” of Belarusian protests was a preparation for Russian troops to enter Belarus in order to attack Ukraine.
These two wars are interconnected: Putin's war against Ukrainians was enabled by Lukashenka's war against Belarusians. What Lukashenka was doing with Belarusians, Putin is now doing in the occupied territories. Lukashenka’s Belarus was Putin’s playground and his political laboratory.
Putin wants to make Ukraine the same as Belarus – a voiceless people with a puppet government, slavishly following the Kremlin’s deadly orders.
Lukashenka claims that he has nothing to do with Putin's war. He even cynically poses himself as a peacemaker. But the truth is that it was his fear of losing power that created the mortal threat to Ukraine, for peace and stability in Europe. We will never forget and we will never forgive that.
In spite of all their brutality, Lukashenko's thugs have not broken the will of the Belarusian people. Lukashenko's war against Belarusians is far from over, and the Belarusian resistance bravely fights on.
Belarusian volunteers are helping Ukrainian forces by informing them about the movements of Russian military convoys and planes. In the Telegram app, Belarusians created a special chat bot: citizens send photos of Russian troops and monitor their movements, so the Ukrainian army can meet them head on.
Last week, Belarusian activists hoisted a large Ukrainian flag on a high-rise building in Minsk. It may cost them years of prison, but they still found bravery to do it!
On Sunday, at a military air base near Minsk, Belarusian partisans destroyed a very important Russian war-plane, a half-a-billion dollars worth A 50 – the “eyes and ears” of Russian rocket attacks on Ukraine. This act of resistance has already been compared to the sinking of the “Moscow” flagship.
Yesterday, our Cyber-partisans hacked the database of the Belarusian social protection fund and leaked sensitive data about Lukashenko's propagandists and their payments. The Cyber-partisans demand the release of all political prisoners.
All these courageous acts of resistance took place within a single week. They were carried out in a de facto occupied country, under constant surveillance and control, in spite of the threat of many years in prison or even death sentences. If this is not heroism, what is?
In the beginning of the war, Belarusian partisans conducted over 80 acts of sabotage that helped to slow the brutal Russian offensive against the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. For that, 11 Belarusian railway partisans were recently sentenced to 175 years in jail.
The youngest of them, Uladzimer Auramtsau, a fitness trainer from Babruysk, is 28 years old. Lukashenko's judge sent him to prison for 22 years. What for? For his firm decision to stop Russian troops from killing innocent Ukrainian citizens. Uladzimir didn't harm anyone and saved many lives.
History repeats itself. Eighty years ago, Belgium was under Nazi occupation. Belgians lost their war against the huge Nazi war-machine, but never gave up. In summer of 1944, groups of Belgian resistance sabotaged railways and electricity cables in order to stop Nazi troops from moving to Normandy.
Those who fought had little chance of success, but acted anyway, bringing victory closer. It is the same for us today: we don’t know when or how it ends, but we will never stop and we will never allow evil to prevail.
The battle for democracy against tyranny is still going on today, and we all are part of this battle. Today, hundreds of Belarusians, together with their Ukrainian brothers in arms, are fighting for the freedom of both our countries. Many of them lost their lives.
Just a month ago, 26th of January, Eduard Lobau, a former political prisoner from Belarus, was killed in battle near Vuhledar. He was 34 years old. Eduard believed that by liberating Ukraine, he also liberated Belarus, because the fight against tyranny is not limited by borders. He believed that a free Belarus cannot exist without a free Ukraine, and vice versa.
When Ukraine wins, if Lukashenka remains in power, there will still remain a constant threat to Ukraine and to the rest of Europe. Tyranny is a cancer. It has to be completely removed. If a single cancer cell should be left on the map of Europe, the disease will reappear, only in an even worse form.
Only liberating Belarusians from Lukashenka's tyranny would lead to true victory, justice, democracy and freedom in Eastern Europe. This struggle will not be over until Belarus is a free, democratic country.
Dear friends.
We live in troubled times, and these times are especially hard if you are a politician fighting for freedom. It's hard for those who, like me, never planned it. But it is equally hard for professional politicians, who dedicate their lives to serve their people, to bring them peace and prosperity, but now have to offer them “blood, toil, tears and sweat”, as Churchill famously said.
More than ever before, these times require courage and determination. And this is what I wish for you all: to have enough courage to love and serve freedom, to overcome fear and to win justice and truth for all.
Thank you”.
