Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya arrived in Kyiv on the morning of May 25 for her first official visit.
From the train station, Tsikhanouskaya went to the Lukianivska Military Cemetery, where Maria Zaitseva, a 24-year-old Belarusian volunteer killed in the Donbas, is buried.
“It was very important for me to begin this visit by honoring someone who gave their life for the freedom of Ukraine and Belarus,” Tsikhanouskaya wrote in her Telegram channel.
Tsikhanouskaya’s schedule, according to the Ukrainian news outlet Ukrainska Pravda, includes meetings with President Volodymyr Zelensky, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, and the leadership of the Verkhovna Rada, as well as EU diplomats and the opening of the Mission of Belarusian Democratic Forces in Ukraine.
Volodymyr Zelensky invited Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya to Kyiv during their first official bilateral meeting, held in January 2026 in Vilnius. Before that, as Ukraine’s president recounted in an interview with the independent Belarusian outlet Zerkalo, he had interacted with Tsikhanouskaya at various international forums.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya ran for president of Belarus in 2020. The Belarusian Central Election Commission declared Alexander Lukashenko the winner. The opposition alleged widespread fraud and claimed Tsikhanouskaya had won. Belarus saw the largest protests in the country’s history, which were violently suppressed. Tsikhanouskaya was forced to leave the country.
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