Lukashenko met with collaborator Saldo. Ukrainian Foreign Ministry says this will have negative consequences for Belarus

On September 15, self-proclaimed President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko met in Minsk with Volodymyr Saldo, a representative of the Russian occupation administration of the temporarily occupied territories of the Kherson region of Ukraine, in the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry called this another manifestation of his gross disregard for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, and for the entire Ukrainian people.

The department says that not only the fact of the meeting itself is shameful, but also Lukashenkoʼs words about the occupied part of the Kherson region as an alleged "new region" of Russia.

The self-proclaimed president of Belarus also declared his readiness to contribute to the strengthening of the occupation regime and develop trade with the occupiers.

The Foreign Ministry stated that Ukraine is ready to respond to Belarusʼ actions, including through new sanctions and increased international isolation. It recalled that such actions by Lukashenko contradict UN General Assembly resolutions, in particular the one of October 12, 2022 on the territorial integrity of Ukraine, which was supported by 143 countries.

The Ministry believes that, according to the norms of international law, "any deals with occupation regimes are null and void and will have exclusively negative consequences for Belarus as a state".

• Volodymyr Saldo is a former deputy of the Kherson City Council. After the full-scale Russian invasion, he sided with the occupiers, who appointed him head of the Kherson occupation administration; in June 2022, he received Russian citizenship.
• The EU, the USA, the UK, Canada, Switzerland, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and Ukraine have imposed sanctions on Saldo. He has been wanted in Ukraine since December 2022.
• Putin appointed Saldo as the occupation "acting governor of the Kherson region" on October 5, 2022.
• The main assets of Saldo, his ex-wife and daughter were seized by the Ukrainian Revenue Service in August. On November 8, 2023, Ukraine sentenced Saldo in absentia to 15 years in prison for high treason.

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