Tikhanovskaya says she had informal meeting with Zelenskyi in Lithuania

Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya has said that she had an informal meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi during his visit to Lithuania.

Tikhanovskaya said this in an interview with the Segodnya online news site.

"Yes, we are in touch, of course, with Ukrainian government representatives. I once met online with Mr. Kuleba [Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba]. The day before yesterday I came across Mr. Zelenskyi at an event in Lithuania. We did not have official meetings, but you know how we strongly feel the support of Ukraine," Tikhanovskaya said.

"The fact that Ukraine joins the EU sanctions [against Belarus] indicates that Ukraine stands by the Belarusian people," she added.

The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry on July 5 accredited the Belarusian Democratic Representation, thus granting official status to the Vilnius-based team of Belarus' exiled opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya.

Mass protests have been going on in Belarus since August 2020 against the rigging of the results of a presidential election in which Alexander Lukashenko was declared the winner.

The European Union, the United States, Ukraine and most democratic countries have not recognized the legitimacy of the Lukashenko regime.

Tikhanovskaya is forced to live in Lithuania where she represents the Belarusian opposition at the international level.