Alexander Lukashenko, Europe’s longest-serving leader, has extended his 31-year rule in Belarus after being declared the winner of a presidential election that his exiled opponents and Western countries have denounced as a sham.

But I don’t think she is the legitimate head of the European Union’s diplomatic service. This is what I believe. It is democratic. She has her beliefs. I have mine.”

No credible opponents were allowed to run against Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus since the 1990s.

The European Union rejected the election in Belarus on Sunday as illegitimate and threatened new sanctions.Belarus held an orchestrated vote virtually guaranteed to give 70-year-old autocratic President Alexander Lukashenko yet another term on top of his three decades in power.

Belarus’ authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko is all but certain to extend his more than three decades in power in Sunday’s election that is rejected by the opposition as a farce after years of sweeping repressions.

President Donald Trump's new Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that a U.S. citizen imprisoned in Belarus under Joe Biden has since been released.

The European Union will not lift sanctions against the government of Belarus's autocrat Alexander Lukashenko following the country's "sham" presidential elections, the bloc's top diplomat Kaja Kallas said on Sunday.

Europe’s longest-serving leader won re-election in a contest widely believe to have been rigged. The result cements the power of a leader whose country is considered Russia’s staunchest ally.

MINSK (Reuters) -Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko said on Sunday that some of his political opponents had "chosen" to go to prison as he cast his vote in a election that was set to extend his 31-year rule.

The European Union has dismissed Belarus's recent election as illegitimate, citing severe human rights violations and lack of fair voting processes. The EU hinted at imposing new sanctions on Belarus,

MINSK (Reuters) -Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko said on Sunday that some of his political opponents had "chosen" to go to prison as he cast his vote in a election that was set to extend his 31-year rule.

The EU's top diplomat said Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, who is certain to win a seventh presidential term in Sunday's election after barring most opponents, "doesn't have any legitimacy".