The European Parliament adopted a resolution Wednesday officially recognizing Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko an “accomplice” in the war crimes of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Ukraine.
The European Parliament’s members are directly elected by voters in all European Union Member States to represent people’s interests with regard toare directly law-making and other decisions.
According to its resolution, Lukashenko has enabled “Russia’s unjustified war of aggression against Ukraine” and thus is directly responsible “for the destruction and damage caused to Ukraine.”
While referring to Belarus as a “satellite state” of Russia, it adds that the actions of Lukashenko and his regime “may also amount to the crime against humanity of ‘deportation or forcible transfer of population’ under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).”
Back in March, the ICC issued arrest warrants for both Putin and Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, the Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, for war crimes in Ukraine related to the abduction of Ukrainian children.
The European Parliament’s resolution denounces “the illegal transfer of more than 2,150 children, including orphans, from Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine to so-called recreational camps in Belarus, where they are subjected to Russification and indoctrination.”
The resolution concludes that a future international tribunal on Russian crimes of aggression must therefore also investigate the leadership of Belarus, not just Putin, and it calls on European Parliament member states to take “all actions necessary” to ensure Belarusian officials can be prosecuted.”
The resolution also “condemns” third countries that are helping Belarus and Russia circumvent sanctions, and proposes that both Belarus and Russia should be put on the European Union’s list of third countries that feature a high risk of money laundering and the financing of terrorism.
It also calls for athletes from either country to be barred from international sporting competition—already a global point of debate as the International Olympic Committee is set to allow both Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris as “neutrals” without any national flag or symbol.
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