But I don’t think she is the legitimate head of the European Union’s diplomatic service. This is what I believe. It is democratic. She has her beliefs. I have mine.”

The European Union rejected the election in Belarus on Sunday as illegitimate and threatened new sanctions.Belarus held an orchestrated vote virtually guaranteed to give 70-year-old autocratic President Alexander Lukashenko yet another term on top of his three decades in power.

No credible opponents were allowed to run against Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus since the 1990s.

The European Union will not lift sanctions against the government of Belarus's autocrat Alexander Lukashenko following the country's "sham" presidential elections, the bloc's top diplomat Kaja Kallas said on Sunday.

Belarusian leader and Russian ally Alexander Lukashenko extended his 31-year rule on Monday after electoral officials declared him the winner of a presidential election Western governments rejected as a sham.

President Donald Trump's new Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that a U.S. citizen imprisoned in Belarus under Joe Biden has since been released.

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed the Ukraine war, Iran and China on Tuesday in their first phone call since the Trump administration took office on Jan.

MINSK (Reuters) -Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko said on Sunday that some of his political opponents had "chosen" to go to prison as he cast his vote in a election that was set to extend his 31-year rule.

The anti-Belarusian statements of Western politicians are of no importance – as stated by Igor Karpenko, the Chairman of the Central

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas, said that the elections in Belarus were illegitimate due to falsifications, repressions, and restrictions on citizens' rights.

EU said it will not lift sanctions against Alexander Lukashenko’s government following ‘sham’ presidential elections.