December 29, Pozirk. The United States has been asking the Belarusian government for a permission to expand the staff of its embassy for “a whole year now,” Alaksandar Łukašenka told the Rossiya 1 television channel.
A video clip of his remarks was posted on Telegram by Pavel Zarubin, a reporter for the channel. The interview had taken place on December 26 during the Eurasian Economic Union summit in Russia’s Leningrad province.
According to Łukašenka, the US would like to station hundreds of people in Belarus.
Asked about a US recommendation for Americans to leave the country, he said: “We have practically no Americans . . . But we are not holding anyone in Belarus. Let them stay if they want to and let them go if they don’t. But there are 0.2 Americans.”
In early 2022, the US advised its citizens to leave Belarus due to escalating political and military tensions, particularly along the Belarusian-Ukrainian border. The State Department ordered the departure of American government employees’ families and, following the onset of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, suspended US Embassy activities in Minsk. Many democratic countries have downgraded their diplomatic presence in Belarus since the 2020 unrest.
