OREANDA-NEWS. The Belarusian Foreign Ministry said that in the coming weeks Minsk will gradually launch countermeasures to EU sanctions.

The economic sectoral sanctions of the European Union against Belarus come into force on Friday. On the eve, the EU Council officially adopted new restrictive measures against Minsk "in response to the escalation of gross violations of human rights in Belarus, aggressive persecution of civil society, democratic opposition and journalists, as well as in connection with the forced landing of Ryanair in Minsk on May 23, 2021".

“Belarus is not going to silently observe this. In the coming weeks, retaliatory measures, which we have repeatedly announced, will gradually be put into effect,” the Belarusian Foreign Ministry said in a statement in connection with the introduction of new economic sanctions against the republic by the EU. The text of the statement was published on the website of the Foreign Ministry.

The ministry stressed that "it is high time for European politicians to understand that pressure and sanctions are not the language in which to speak with Belarus." “At the same time, we remain open for an equal dialogue and mutually beneficial cooperation with those who see Belarus as a partner, and not an object for geopolitical claims and experiments,” the statement says.

The Belarusian Foreign Ministry said that the new EU sanctions against Minsk are intended to undermine a sovereign state that is pursuing an independent foreign policy.

According to the Foreign Ministry, “it is obvious that in an effort to satisfy its ambitions at the expense of our relatively small country, the huge European Union is not at all interested in the opinion of millions of Belarusian workers, workers of trade unions, political parties and public associations, who have expressed their clear and unequivocal rejection of the odious EU sanctions policy ”.