— We come from various cities in Poland – a country that won its freedom and is helping us today. [Polska] understands very well that without a free Belarus there will be no safe Poland, Tsikhanouskaya emphasized.
— Today we say “thank you.” We thank Poland, we thank the Polish nation, she emphasized. She added that on Saturday, people living in Belarus wrote to her and wrote in secret messages that they were also celebrating. – We are waiting for the moment when we can return to Belarus – she added.
Vice-chairman of the Belarusian opposition United Transitional Cabinet (government in exile), Pavel Latushka, emphasized: freedom for Belarus begins with our will. — I want to say today: I have the will to fight for freedom. I am convinced that those who gathered here today in the square in Warsaw also have the will to fight for our freedom, he said.
Unofficial celebrations
A march on the occasion of Belarus's independence day passed through the streets of the capital three days after the calendar celebration of Freedom Day – March 25.
Freedom Day (Belarusian Day of Will) is an unofficial celebration of the independence of Belarus, celebrated by democratic circles since March 25, 1918, when the first Belarusian state was proclaimed – the Belarusian People's Republic (BRL). However, the government of Alexander Lukashenko scheduled the official celebration of independence for July 3 – on the anniversary of the liberation of Minsk from the German occupation by the Red Army in 1944.
According to the Viasna Human Rights Center, there are still 910 political prisoners in Belarus.
