“People in Belarus don't want this war” - former Roscrea resident Svetlana Tsikhanouskaya

The Belarusian opposition leader in exile Svetlana Tsikhanouskaya, who has strong links to Roscrea, has expressed solidarity with Ukraine and said the Belarusian people "don't support this war."

The world famous politician, who spent several years living with the the Deane family in Roscrea and later returned to work in the town, has been living in exile in Lithuania, where she fled to shortly after running in the 2020 presidential election against dictator Alexander Lukashenko.

She had run as an independent candidate following the arrest of her husband, pro-democracy campaigner Siarhei Tsikhanouski.

As Belarusian troops and tanks began to cross the border into Ukraine to support the advancing Russian army, the former Roscrea resident said the vast majority of Belarusian people do not support the invasion of their neighbour's lands.

"We didn't expect this war would happen. This is the price Lukashenko is paying for Kremlin's support in 2020, which allowed Lukashenko to stay in power.

"I really want to express solidarity with all Ukrainians because some people don't want to fight, especially they don't want to fight against Ukraine, our neighbor, people we love... We want to be friends, of course, with them."

"I know that a majority of people don't support this war, don't support the participation of the Belarusian army in this war. Only 12% believe that Belarus must send its soldiers and only 13% are in support of the Russian campaign," she said.