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.

Alexander Lukashenko is projected to win Belarus's presidency with 87.6% of the vote, amid Western critics labeling the elections a 'sham'. Despite past protests and accusations of election rigging, Lukashenko persists in power,

Long-time leader of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, once dubbed "Europe's last dictator", arrived to cast his ballot. Then, while Belarusians were still voting, candidate Lukashenko gave a four-and-a-half hour press conference live on state TV.

The President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, claims to have won a landslide victory in an election already being denounced across the Western world as a “sham”.

Five years after widespread protests tried and failed to topple Alexander Lukashenko, he has once again been re-elected as President of Belarus. According to the official result, Lukashenko received a resounding victory with 87 percent of the vote. But no one really believes it.

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

This is a blatant affront to democracy. Lukashenko doesn’t have any legitimacy.” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said.

Belarus on Sunday held an orchestrated election virtually guaranteed to give its 70-year-old autocrat, Alexander Lukashenko, yet another presidential term on top of his three decades in power.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has stated that the so-called presidential "elections" in Belarus on 26 January 2025 do not meet international standards and that there are no grounds to recognise Alexander Lukashenko as the legitimate president of Belarus.

The EU condemned the elections held on January 26 in Belarus as illegitimate and signaled plans for additional sanctions

He still did not dare to surpass his ‘big brother’, but came close to his result: Vladimir Putin, according to the official version, gained 87.28% in last year’s elections.”