page_title: 2020 Belarusian protests
section_title: Third week
hierarchical_section_title: 2020 Belarusian protests / Post-election / Third week
caption_attribution_description: Беларуская: Пратэстны мітынг супраць Лукашэнкі 23 жніўня 2020 года. Мінск, Беларусь English: Protest rally against Lukashenko, 23 August 2020. Minsk, Belarus Русский: Протестный митинг против Лукашенко 23 августа 2020 года. Минск, Беларусь
context_page_description: The 2020 Belarusian protests are a series of political demonstrations against the Belarusian government and President Alexander Lukashenko. The demonstrations, which are part of the Belarusian democracy movement, began in the lead-up to and during the 2020 presidential election, in which Lukashenko sought a sixth term in office. In response, a number of relatively small pro-Lukashenko demonstrations were held.
  On 14 August, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya claimed that she had received 60–70% of the vote and announced the creation of the Coordination Council, with membership applications open to all Belarusians who agree that the election had been falsified.
context_section_description: On 23 August, a rally of approximately 250,000 people dubbed "the march for a new Belarus" began at 14:00 in Minsk and headed towards Independence Square. Similar rallies were also organised in other cities and towns across the country. Human chains in solidarity for the Belarusian democracy movement have been organised in other countries, including one that will stretch from Vilnius to the border with Belarus. Military vehicles were seen on the streets of Minsk and road blocks and checkpoints were established on the main roads leading into the city. The army also assumed responsibility for the protection of statues and monuments from local police forces. The area around the Belarusian Great Patriotic War Museum, where protesters had gathered the previous week, was blocked off with barbed wire. It was reported that people were detained by armed officers in military uniform near the museum. The rally later passed the museum where Maria Kalesnikava urged participants to not antagonise security personnel. 
  Later in the afternoon, the rally moved onward toward State Flag Square and the Independence Palace where protesters faced off against security forces who had set up a road block. It has been reported that Alexander Lukashenko is in residence at the Independence Palace. There were also reports that a presidential helicopter was seen heading towards the palace and that it had landed in the grounds at 19:05. Footage later emerged showing Lukashenko walking near the helicopter, wearing a bullet proof vest and holding a machine gun and then walking around the palace grounds. In the latter footage, Lukashenko was heard saying "Leave me alone," and "There is no one left there, right?". His 15-year-old son, Nikolai, was seen with him dressed in military uniform and holding a gun. In a third video, he is seen surveying protesters from a helicopter and is heard saying "How the rats ran away" in an apparent reference to the protesters. In a fourth video, Lukashenko was seen removing the former flag of Belarus from a flower bed, waving at security personnel whilst telling them they are "handsome" and in reference to protesters, saying "we will deal with them". Large groups of security personnel were later seen heading towards the centre of Minsk and military helicopters were seen flying over parts of the city. Authorities asked mobile operators to restrict 3G access to parts of Minsk at around 18:30 local time. The presidential helicopter was seen leaving the palace at about 20:47 and it was unknown if Lukashenko was on board or not. The official representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs claimed that 30,000 people attended pro-government demonstrations in the past day, against 6,100 attending anti-government demonstrations.
  On 24 August, presidium members of the Coordination Council, Sergei Dylevsky and Olga Kovalkova were detained by the security services whilst attempting to support striking workers at the Minsk Tractor Works factory. Three other presidium members, Svetlana Alexievich, Lilia Vlasova and Pavel Latushko, were also summoned for questioning. Police appeared to be less tolerant of protests, rallies and strikes, actively breaking up lines of solidarity in Minsk and arresting leaders of strikes at state-owned enterprises. Despite increased police presence, groups of protesters were still able to gather in Independence Square in Minsk, where they shouted "Leave" and also in Grodno and in Brest. Alexander Lukashenko issued a statement in which he threatened dismissal for school teachers who do not follow "state ideology". An employee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was fired after he had attended an anti-Lukashenko rally the previous week with another Ministry employee. The Government of Lithuania handed a note of protest to the Belarusian ambassador in Vilnius accusing the Belarusian armed forces of violating Lithuanian airspace by as much as 3 km the previous day. Belarus claimed that its air force was attempting to prevent balloons depicting the former flag of Belarus, which was described as an "anti-state s
caption: Rally against Lukashenko. Minsk, 23 August
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