US, EU, Britain and Canada hit Belarus with co-ordinated sanctions

Migrants at a logistics centre at the Belarus/Poland border near Grodno in Belarus (Oksana Manchuk/BelTA via AP)

The United States, European Union, Britain and Canada slapped simultaneous sanctions on dozens of officials, organisations and companies in Belarus, with the EU taking aim at those accused of taking part in a “hybrid attack” on the bloc using migrants.

The four have targeted Belarus since President Alexander Lukashenko won another term in office last year after elections that the West and other observers say were fraudulent, and over the security crackdown on peaceful protesters that followed.