LONDON (Parliament Politics Magazine) – The United Kingdom has issued its first round of sanctions against key military figures in Belarus for their participation in and facilitation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Maj Gen Victor Gulevich, the Belarusian chief of general staff, and three additional deputy defence ministers, as well as two military firms, will all face sanctions.
Similar actions are likely to be taken by the EU, with which the UK has been cooperating closely on sanctions. Belarus has been used as a staging area for Russian troops en route to Ukraine. Belarusian troops have also joined the attack.
Gulevich, according to the Foreign Office, is in charge of overseeing the operations of the Belarusian military forces, which have supported and facilitated Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He has supervised joint military exercises with Russia and approved the deployment of Russian troops along the Belarus-Ukraine border, which has directly contributed in aiding Russia’s ability to strike Ukraine, including from sites in Belarus, according to the Foreign Office.
JSC Integral, a military semiconductor manufacturer and JSC 558 Aircraft Repair Plant are the two state firms the UK has sanctioned. JSC 558 maintains and services military aircraft at the Baranovichi air base, from which Russian planes moved during the invasion.
Over 100 Belarus government members have already been sanctioned by the UK for imprisoning thousands of citizens for protesting rigged elections in August of 2020, and there are chances that the United States is inclined to use the dollar’s power to crash the Belarusian economy in the same way that the Russian economy has been crashing.
The US Treasury named two significant Belarusian state-owned banks, Dabrabyt and Belinvestbank as sanctioned this week. It claims to have sanctioned 24 Belarusian businesses and individuals directly in reaction to Belarus providing support and facilitating the Russian invasion into Ukraine.
Measures are also being implemented in close coordination with the United States, the European Union, and other partners, which will jointly cut off much of Russia’s hi-tech imports, limiting its military-industrial-and technological capabilities for years to come.
“We are inflicting economic pain on Putin and those closest to him,” Truss stated. They have no intention of stopping until Ukraine regains its territorial integrity and sovereignty. The [Alexander] Lukashenko regime deliberately helps and abets Russia’s unlawful invasion, and it will be forced to feel the consequences (economic) for its backing of Putin.
“There will be nowhere to hide. Nothing – or no one – is off the table,” she added.
