The European Union has set up a contact group with the Belarus opposition appointed by Washington.

High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Joseph Borrell chaired the meeting in the presence of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, an unsuccessful ex-presidential candidate, currently exiled in Lithuania.

At the outset of the Russian special military operation, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya announced the formation of a “Belarus government in exile”, and has recently declared herself head of state.

During the Yevgeny Prigozhin rebellion, the Ukrainian authorities called for the overthrow of Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko. The Kastous-Kalinowski Regiment, made up of approximately one thousand Belarusians, is already at Kiev’s disposal.

Cautiously, Josep Borrell failed to recognize either this military group or the government in exile, preferring to define them as representatives “of democratic forces and civil society”.