Britain says it has expelled two Belarusian diplomats following the "unjustified expulsion" of two of its own diplomats by Minsk, amid a wave of protests across Belarus calling for the resignation of Alyaksandr Lukashenka following a presidential election in August that the West has refused to accept.
"The UK will not be cowed by the attempts of Lukashenko's regime to stop us speaking out about the rigged election & the despicable violence against the Belarusian people," British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said on Twitter on November 10.
Raab's announcement came shortly after a spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the Foreign Office had summoned the Belarusian ambassador to London.
The previous day, Belarusian Foreign Ministry spokesman Anatol Hlaz said two British diplomats had been declared personae non gratae after they engaged in "destructive" activities.
The diplomatic spat marks a further deterioration in relations between European capitals and Minsk over Lukashenka's violent crackdown on postelection protests.
Lukashenka, who has ruled Belarus for 26 years, has faced almost daily protests since the August 9 presidential election that the opposition says was rigged.
Thousands of people have been arrested since the authorities declared Lukashenka the landslide winner of the vote. Most of the country's opposition leaders have been arrested or forced to leave the country.
Lukashenka has called the protesters and members of the opposition Western "puppets."
Britain and the European Union have imposed sanctions on senior Belarusian officials, including Lukashenka, in response to the crackdown and "falsification" of the presidential vote.
