People in Belarus have started to vote in the presidential election, which is all but certain to extend the rule of Alexander Lukashenko.
The authoritarian leader is expected to win a seventh term as leader in Sunday’s election, extending his 31 years in power in Sunday’s election.
Citizens were pictured heading to the polls in the country’s capital, Minsk. A total of 6.9 million people are registered to cast their ballots before voting ends at 5pm tonight UK time.
Four opposition candidates also appear on ballots, but all are loyal to Mr Lukashenko and have praised his rule.
Image: Mr Lukashenko’s dog Umka accompanied him to cast his vote. Pic: Reuters
Many of the actual opponents to the incumbent president are either in prison or have been exiled abroad as a result of a crackdown on dissent and free speech.
It comes after mass protests after the election in 2020 threatened his claim to the presidency as Western governments backed the opposition’s assertion that he falsified the results and stole victory from its candidate, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.
The demonstrations went on for months and led to the arrest of more than 65,000 people, many of whom are still in prison.
Ms Tsikhanouskaya, who fled Belarus under government pressure, told The Associated Press that Sunday’s election was “a senseless farce, a Lukashenko ritual”.
Image: Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya in 2020. Pic: Reuters
Image: People cast their votes in Minsk. Pic: Reuters/Evgenia Novozhenina
In preparation for this year’s election, polling stations have removed the curtains covering ballot boxes, and voters are forbidden from photographing their ballots – a response to the opposition’s call in 2020 for voters to take pictures to make it more difficult for authorities to rig the vote.
Police have also conducted large-scale drills before the election as a way to prepare for dispersing a protest.
Who is Alexander Lukashenko?
Alexander Lukashenko has been in power in Belarus since 1994.
The 70-year-old took office two years after the demise of the Soviet Union, which earned him the nickname “Europe’s Last Dictator”.
Belarus was part of the Soviet Union until its collapse in 1991.
Mr Lukashenko has restored Soviet-style controls on the economy, discouraged use of the Belarusian language in favour of Russian, and pushed for abandoning the country’s red-and-white national flag in favour of one similar to what it used as a Soviet republic.
He also remains a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Throughout his rule, he’s relied on subsidies and political support from Russia, let Moscow use his territory to invade Ukraine in 2022 and agreed to host some of the country’s tactical nuclear weapons.
Mr Lukashenko’s support for the war in Ukraine has led to the rupture of Belarus’ ties with the US and the European Union.
Both said in the run-up to Sunday’s vote that it could not be free and fair because independent media are banned in Belarus and all leading opposition figures have been jailed or forced to flee abroad.
Speaking at a press conference as he cast his own vote on Sunday, Mr Lukashenko said some of his political opponents had “chosen” to go to prison, adding that no one was preventing from speaking out in the country.
“We didn’t kick anyone out of the country,” he said, adding: “[But prison was] for people who opened their mouths too wide, to put it bluntly, those who broke the law.”
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Belarus president set to extend rule
The president has repeatedly claimed that he wasn’t clinging to power at the last election and would “quietly and calmly hand it over to the new generation”.
Since July last year, he has also pardoned more than 250 people described as political prisoners by activists.
Artyom Shraybman, a Belarus expert with the Carnegie Russia and Eurasia Centre, told Reuters that Mr Lukashenko plans to use the pardons and his election win to try and ease his total dependence on Russia and start a conversation with the West about easing sanctions.
Donald Trump has criticised Vladimir Putin and suggested a shift in his stance towards the Russian president after a meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy before the Pope’s funeral.
The Ukrainian president said the one-on-one talks could prove to be “historic” after pictures showed him sitting opposite Mr Trump, around two feet apart, in the large marble hall inside St Peter’s Basilica.
The US president said he doubted his Russian counterpart’s willingness to end the war after leaving Rome after the funeral of Pope Francis at the Vatican.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, he said “there was no reason” for the Russian president “to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days”.
Image: The two leaders held talks before attending the Pope’s funeral
He added: “It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions?’ Too many people are dying!!!”
The meeting between the US and Ukrainian leaders was their first face-to-face encounter since a very public row in the Oval Office in February.
Mr Zelenskyy said he had a good meeting with Mr Trump in which they talked about the defence of the Ukrainian people, a full and unconditional ceasefire, and a durable and lasting peace that would prevent the war restarting.
Other images released by the Ukrainian president’s office show Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron were present for part of the talks, which were described as “positive” by the French presidency.
Mr Zelenskyy‘s spokesman said the meeting lasted for around 15 minutes and he and Mr Trump had agreed to hold further discussions later on Saturday.
Image: The world leaders shared a moment before the service
Image: Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy meet in the Basilica
But the US president left Rome for Washington on Air Force One soon after the funeral without any other talks having taken place.
The Ukrainian president’s office said there was no second meeting in Rome because of the tight schedule of both leaders, although he had separate discussions with Mr Starmer and Mr Macron.
The French president said in a post on X “Ukraine is ready for an unconditional ceasefire” and that a so-called coalition of the willing, led by the UK and France, would continue working to achieve a lasting peace.
There was applause from some of the other world leaders in attendance at the Vatican when Mr Zelenskyy walked out of St Peter’s Basilica after stopping in front of the pontiff’s coffin to pay his respects.
Image: Donald Trump and the Ukrainian president met for the first time since their Oval Office row. Pic: Reuters
Sir Tony Brenton, the former British ambassador to Russia, said the event presents diplomatic opportunities, including the “biggest possible meeting” between Mr Trump and the Ukrainian leader.
He told Sky News it could mark “an important step” in starting the peace process between Russia and Ukraine.
Professor Father Francesco Giordano told Sky News the meeting is being called “Pope Francis’s miracle” by members of the clergy, adding: “There’s so many things that happened today – it was just overwhelming.”
The bilateral meeting comes after Mr Trump’s peace negotiator Steve Witkoff held talks with Mr Putin at the Kremlin.
They discussed “the possibility of resuming direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine”, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said.
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On an extraordinary day, remarkable pictures on the margins that capture what may be a turning point for the world.
In a corner of St Peter’s Basilica before the funeral of Pope Francis, the leaders of America and Ukraine sit facing each other in two solitary chairs.
They look like confessor and sinner except we cannot tell which one is which.
In another, the Ukrainian president seems to be remonstrating with the US president. This is their first encounter since their infamous bust-up in the Oval Office.
Image: The two leaders held talks before attending the Pope’s funeral
Other pictures show the moment their French and British counterparts introduced the two men. There is a palpable sense of nervousness in the way the leaders engage.
We do not know what the two presidents said in their brief meeting.
But in the mind of the Ukrainian leader will be the knowledge President Trump has this week said America will reward Russia for its unprovoked brutal invasion of his country, under any peace deal.
Mr Trump has presented Ukraine and Russia with a proposal and ultimatum so one-sided it could have been written in the Kremlin.
Kyiv must surrender the land Russia has taken by force, Crimea forever, the rest at least for now. And it must submit to an act of extortion, a proposed deal that would hand over half its mineral wealth effectively to America.
Image: The world leaders shared a moment before the service
Afterwards, Zelenskyy said it had been a good meeting that could turn out to be historic “if we reach results together”.
They had talked, he said, about the defence of Ukraine, a full and unconditional ceasefire and a durable and lasting peace that will prevent a war restarting.
The Trump peace proposal includes only unspecified security guarantees for Ukraine from countries that do not include the US. It rules out any membership of Ukraine.
Ukraine’s allies are watching closely to see if Mr Trump will apply any pressure on Vladimir Putin, let alone punish him for recent bloody attacks on Ukraine.
Or will he simply walk away if the proposal fails, blaming Ukrainian intransigence, however outrageously, before moving onto a rapprochement with Moscow.
If he does, America’s role as guarantor of international security will be seen effectively as over.
This could be the week we see the world order as we have known it since the end of the Second World War buried, as well as a pope.