December 2, Pozirk. Belarusian opposition leader Śviatłana Cichanoŭskaja welcomed the decision of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) to suspend the Belarusian Red Cross (BRC) as a member.
“Their [BRC’s] involvement in election falsification and the abduction of Ukrainian children cannot be overlooked,” she said on X. “The regime must be held accountable.”
On December 1, the IFRC suspended the BRC membership for failing to comply with the demand to dismiss the local secretary general, Dźmitryj Šaŭcoŭ, whose remarks about Russian nuclear weapons in Belarus and activities in Russian-occupied territory caused outrage in the media.
The IFRC’s demands for Šaŭcoŭ’s dismissal stem from concerns about his visits to the Russian-occupied Ukrainian cities of Luhansk and Donetsk and his statements about the displacement of Ukrainian children.
The BRC will be banned from participating in IFRC events and will not have access to funding as long as Šaŭcoŭ remains in charge, the IFRC stressed.
Šaŭcoŭ described the suspension as “absolutely politicized” in his comment to the Belarusian state-run media.
Officials in Minsk do not deny the transfers of Ukrainian children to Belarus but claim that they are organized for their benefit in agreement with their legal representatives.
On August 11, Alaksandar Łukašeka said that Ukrainian minors “come here to be in peace . . . not to hear these explosions, not to see these deaths, this hunger.”
The Belarusian ruler ridiculed attempts to secure an international arrest warrant against him over alleged forced deportations as a plot by “Westerners.”
