The Foreign Affairs committee of the European Parliament has urged the International Criminal Court (ICC) to consider an arrest warrant for Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko for his nation’s involvement in the war in Ukraine.
The committee said in a news released Tuesday that it also urged the Belarusian government to free all political detainees. They also expressed concern over Belarus’ submission to Moscow in a new report.
Additionally, the study “calls on the EU institutions and member states to take all necessary steps at the international level to enable the criminal prosecution of those Belarusian political and military leaders responsible for crimes against humanity and genocide”.
The ICC in March issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian official Maria Lvova-Belova for an alleged scheme to deport Ukrainian children to Russia.
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Belarus served as a base for Russia’s initial invasion of northern Ukraine last February. Since then, it has provided military stores and equipment to Russia; allowed mobilized Russian conscripts to train on its territory, and served as a launching point for missile attacks on Ukraine.
Hajun, an independent Belarusian monitoring group, claims that Russia has launched more than 600 missiles at Ukraine from Belarus.
While the Belarusian army has not formally fought in Ukraine, its ongoing military assistance to Russia makes Lukashenko complicit in Putin’s invasion.
