The former Ukrainian Ambassador to Belarus, Ihor Kyzym, has revealed that he has been appointed Ambassador-at-Large for Belarus. The diplomat reported this on his Facebook page on Feb. 2
Leaders of the Belarusian democratic movement in exile have welcomed this move while official Kyiv has made no effort to publicize it.
Kyiv Post has previously pointed out the puzzling distancing by the Ukrainian leadership from the Belarusian democratic forces opposed to the despot in Minsk, Russia’s vassal, Aleksandr Lukashenko.
The latter rigged the presidential election in Belarus in August 2020 and has imprisoned close to 2,000 political opponents supporting democracy, the country’s sovereignty and European self-identification.
Kyzym writes: “Recently, many messages have appeared in media networks regarding my new appointment related to relations with Belarusian democratic forces. I want to clarify this issue. By the decision of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, I was appointed Ambassador-at-Large for Belarus. It is obvious that at the moment any issue that concerns Belarus has a “special” character.”
The diplomat does not explain what he means by “special,” and therefore sheds no light on Kyiv’s official position towards Minsk almost two years into Russia’s war against Ukraine, during which Belarus has been used as a staging area for the Kremlin’s military aggression southward.
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Kyzym elaborates rather guardedly that his duties will include, “among other things, questions related to the democratic forces of Belarus, as that part of Belarusian society that has opposed the policies of the current leadership of Belarus, especially its support for the Russian aggression against Ukraine.”
The former ambassador was removed from his post in Minsk by the Zelensky administration in June 2022 as strains between Kyiv and Minsk intensified. Nevertheless, the Ukrainian side does not appear to have formally broken diplomatic ties with the Lukashenko regime, which acts as a loyal ally of Russia.
The leader of the Belarusian democratic opposition, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who is widely believed to have defeated in the last presidential election in her country and is usually addressed in the West as President-elect of Belarus, wrote on her X site on Feb 3:
“I congratulate Ihor Kyzym on his appointment as 🇺🇦 Ambassador-at-Large to Belarus, responsible for relations with our democratic forces. This is an important & timely decision by FM Dmytro Kuleba. We look forward to working together at this decisive moment for our nations.”
Oddly, neither Kuleba nor his ministry appear to have formally announced Kyzym’s appointment. There is no mention of it on the ministry’s official site.
It is also strange that the foreign minister, not the Ukrainian president, are credited with having taken this step, which the Belarusian democratic opposition would like to interpret as a hand finally being extended to it by official Kyiv.
Tsikhanouskaya and her colleagues in the de facto Belarusian democratic government in exile – the United Transitional Cabinet of Belarus, strongly support Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression and wish to see a democratic Belarus integrated together with Ukraine in the European Union.
Kyiv Post has also reported on the Belarusian volunteers fighting on Ukraine’s side against the Russian invaders.
The Ukrainian leadership has still to clarify its official position on Belarus as inexplicably it seems to be among the last Western governments to do so.
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Comments (6)
The free world sympathizes with the Belarusian democratic government in exile and the majority voters they represent that got shafted in 2020 by putin and his puppet. Lukeshenko has also so far made Belarus a useful pawn to putin essentially forcing the Ukrainians to defend its northern border against the russian troops which he hosts. However lukeshenko has not committed the Belarusian military to fight against Ukraine....as that runs the risk of triggering a civil war in Belarus. The Ukrainians have had enough on their hands presently to also take the risk of making the northern border again more active. Even though Lukeshenko deserves their wraith.
However the goal of the Ukrainians and Belarusian democracy voters remains the same: self determination / freedom from russian oppression. The ONLY means open to the achieve this for Ukraine is to fight with allied support directly against Russian forces. The Belarusian majority is seemingly not yet capable of organizing a similar fight against Lukeshenko's internal thug forces.
Their best route to freedom is to quietly support Ukraine directly by any means possible. When putin falls they shortly thereafter get their freedom. Putin's reign of terror in russia and direct / hybrid war meddling in all democracies must be ended.
@Jack Griffin, You may not wish to respond, but its' a paying job for you thus no choice in the matter. So YOU WILL READ EVERYTHING that I type troll jack, and you will respond as the troll farm commands.
Now for countering its' putin's propaganda. US oil production actually rose by 500k barrels under President Biden beyond the best year ever production during rump's term......to counter the impact of global oil sanctions he imposed to lower putins' revenue. At a record 12.8 million barrels per day last year that far exceeded Saudi Arabia (2nd place) at 10 million barrels / day. A US Federal report published 8/9/23 has further detail if trolls still have access to google. As cleaner alternatives become more entrenched, production can be reduced again. There s no need for methane spewing rumps.
The 2021 Cop26 summit in Glascow reported 99.95 scientific community consensus on humans causing global warming. Of 88,125 studies on this topic, only 28 questionable funded papers were skeptical. So what do the above countering facts say about your intellectual level?
Troll jack, you are too easy to debunk.
@Jack Griffin, Thanks for reading and for your kind words as always troll Jack. Tell me with yours and MRGA / MAGA cults tight intercourse (a word with multiple meanings including "communication"), how does MRGA's rump plan to bring unity to the USA?......you know like the kind Ukraine enjoys amongst its peoples as they unify daily to beat putins' overwhelming force each day.
The USA will sadly never be great again while in disunity and writhing with dissension. putin benefits from American disunity. Let's pretend for a second rump does not report to putin (as implausible as it seems).
How does rump plan to undo the damage he inflicted to America's unity during his last term? Let me guess your response.. "he has a plan but he can't share it until after the election"...."he will bring about American unity within 24 hours" Yeah right (sarcasm intended). !!!
@Jack Griffin, Thanks for reading my post again and taking the time away from your other putin supporting efforts to respond. Its exactly as I predicted because as we know you did not have a choice. Its' also exactly as I intended, so score another win for me.
For myself and the other Ukraine supporting volunteers on Kyivpost we will continue to debunk any lies and misdirection spread by MRGA trolls. Its part of the hybrid efforts (putting pressure on our national, corporate and NGO leadership, sending Ukraine money to buy drones..etc, fighting trolls on online) of global democracy supporters to ensure putin's cronies, trolls and foreign political plants in MRGA are thwarted in their efforts to undermine Ukrainian support.
One thing I was hoping you would address from my other comments though, is how rump will bring Unity to the "United" states. We know that is the only way to make it great again, yet his history illustrates he has so far only sown disunity. Please don't keep us waiting jack.
@Jack Griffin, You may not wish to respond, but its' a paying job for you thus no choice in the matter. So YOU WILL READ EVERYTHING that I type troll jack, and you will respond as the troll farm commands.
Now for countering its' putin's propaganda. US oil production actually rose by 500k barrels under President Biden beyond the best year ever production during rump's term......to counter the impact of global oil sanctions he imposed to lower putins' revenue. At a record 12.8 million barrels per day last year that far exceeded Saudi Arabia (2nd place) at 10 million barrels / day. A US Federal report published 8/9/23 has further detail if trolls still have access to google. As cleaner alternatives become more entrenched, production can be reduced again. There s no need for methane spewing rumps.
The 2021 Cop26 summit in Glascow reported 99.9 scientific community consensus on humans causing global warming. Of 88,125 studies on this topic, only 28 questionable funded papers were skeptical. So what do the above countering facts say about your intellectual level?
Troll jack, you are too easy to debunk.
The free world sympathizes with the Belarusian democratic government in exile and the majority voters they represent that got shafted in 2020 by putin and his puppet. Lukeshenko has also so far made Belarus a useful pawn to putin essentially forcing the Ukrainians to defend its northern border against the russian troops which he hosts.
However lukeshenko has not committed the Belarusian military to fight against Ukraine....as that runs the risk of triggering a civil war in Belarus. The Ukrainians have had enough on their hands presently to also take the risk of making the northern border again more active. Even though Lukeshenko deserves their wraith.
However the goal of the Ukrainians and Belarusian democracy voters remains the same: self determination / freedom from russian oppression. The ONLY means open to the achieve this for Ukraine is to fight with allied support directly against Russian forces. The Belarusian majority is seemingly not yet capable of organizing a similar fight against Lukeshenko's internal thug forces. Their best route to freedom is to quietly support Ukraine directly by any means possible. When putin falls they shortly thereafter get their freedom.
Putin's reign of terror in russia and direct / hybrid war meddling in all democracies must be ended.