Reaction to “hybrid attack”: EU tightened sanctions against Belarus

Response to “hybrid attack”
EU tightened sanctions against Belarus

The government of the Belarusian ruler Lukashenko is smuggling thousands of migrants to the external border of the European Union. Now the EU is reacting and expanding punitive measures against those around the president. Further sanctions could follow.

In the refugee dispute with Belarus, the European Union is tightening the sanctions: the member states decided to make it significantly more difficult to issue visas to those responsible, as the Slovenian Interior Minister Ales Hojis announced. The decision was “a response to the ongoing hybrid attack by the Belarusian regime,” stressed Hojis, whose country will hold the rotating chairmanship of the member states until the end of the year.

A “hybrid attack” is understood to mean, among other things, an attack with concealment tactics – the attackers act anonymously or negate their responsibility. The EU accuses Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of targeting thousands of migrants from the Middle East to the borders with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia in order to retaliate for previous sanctions.

Most recently, the situation on the border with Poland had worsened significantly. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had therefore called for a new sanction resolution. The EU Commission had already applied for the extended sanctions at the end of September. According to Brussels, the difficult issue of visas affects government employees and holders of diplomatic passports and not the broader Belarusian population.

As early as Wednesday, the ambassadors of the 27 member states in Brussels could initiate a further tightening of the punitive measures. It is about the new criterion of instrumentalizing refugees and human smuggling.

A further sanction resolution could then fall under this in the coming weeks. Germany had proposed to list airlines from third countries or travel agencies for sanctions that participate in the smuggling of people.

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