Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko mocks EU, calls sanctions 'powerlessness'

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Thursday mocked the economic sanctions slapped on it by the European Union, calling it 'their powerlessness'.

The European Union had imposed wide-ranging economic sanctions on Belarus for the first time in response to what the bloc called the ''escalation of serious human rights violations'', including the detention of journalist Roman Protasevich.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

The sanctions target the economy but are also aimed at hitting President Alexander Lukashenko and his allies.

Pratasevich, a dissident journalist, was arrested May 23 after Belarusian flight controllers ordered a Ryanair jet travelling from Greece to Lithuania to land in Minsk.

The measures include banning EU businesses from importing goods or doing business with Belarusian companies in sectors including banking, petroleum products and potash, a salt used in fertilizer that is the country's main export.

Lukashenko, commenting on the sanctions while at a work trip in Grodno region, also said that the sanctions should not affect Belarusian companies.

The sanctions are far stricter than measures imposed in the past, which had mainly consisted of blacklists of Belarusian officials and had little or no impact on the behaviour of President Alexander Lukashenko, in power since 1994.

EU leaders were outraged by the interception of the Ryanair plane flying between Athens and Vilnius on May 23. Belarusian authorities arrested a dissident journalist and his girlfriend after the plane landed, in an incident which Western countries branded state piracy.

With Lukashenko so far impervious to foreign pressure over disputed elections last August, the EU said it wanted to dramatically escalate pressure.

Lukashenko argued that the journalist pulled off the plane had been plotting a rebellion, and he accused the West of waging a hybrid war against him.

Since cracking down violently on pro-democracy demonstrations after a disputed election outcome last year, he has withstood three rounds of EU sanctions and comparable USmeasures - mainly blacklists that bar officials from travelling to or doing business in Europe and the United States.

(With inputs from agencies)