“As before, there are arrests of peace-loving demonstrators. That’s why we need to consider how things continue there,” Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on his way into talks with EU counterparts in Luxembourg.

“I have suggested that we already get started on a new package of sanctions. And Lukashenko should also be among those people to be sanctioned,” he said.

Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu said his country also supported more sanctions, but Austria’s Alexander Schallenberg said it was important not just to focus on sanctions but also on opening up the European Union to Belarusian civil society.