Polish Minister of European Union Affairs Szymon Szynkowski told PAP that Poland will convince its European partners of the need to expand sanctions against Belarus.

In his opinion, sanctions against Belarus must be brought in accordance with the previously introduced package of sanctions against Russia.

"Otherwise, this is a direct way to circumvent sanctions.

In any case, we observe such cases," he noted.

He noted that Poland is discussing this issue with the European Commission, and is also talking "with other partners, such as Portugal, which has doubts about this issue."

According to RAR, at Tuesday's conference in Bucharest, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki assured that he talks with European leaders almost every day about how to form the 11th sanctions package against Belarus and said that the statement about the deployment of nuclear weapons in the country " will certainly lead to the introduction of additional sanctions against Belarus", and their level will be "significantly tougher for Lukashenka's regime".

"We are also in Poland - because we have a direct border with Belarus - we are wondering whether we need to tighten all the parameters within the framework of our bilateral relations of cargo and passenger transport, precisely in order to send a very clear message to Lukashenka that we do not accept such actions that de facto serve Russia in its aggressive actions in Ukraine and aggressive actions against Poland and other EU countries," said Moravetskyi.

• On March 31, reliable sources of the European editor of Radio Svaboda Rikard Yuzwiak in Brussels reported that there are no discussions about new EC sanctions against Minsk after Putin's statement about the deployment of nuclear weapons in Belarus.

• Now a number of European countries are trying to convince the European Commission of the need to loosen sanctions against official Minsk, in particular, to remove them from fertilizer producers.

  So far, there is no agreement on this issue.

• According to Rikard Yuzviak, Western European countries — Portugal, Belgium, the Netherlands, and France — are supporting the removal of Belarusian potash fertilizers from the sanctions.

  It is proposed to include Belarus, along with Russia, in the sanctions clause, which, as an exception, allows the transportation of fertilizers to third countries in the event that they will be used for growing food products.

• Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda recently stated that Lithuania "will not give in to pressure to ease sanctions against the Belarusian regime", and added that the countries of Northern Europe and Lithuania's Baltic neighbors are also against the easing of sanctions.