United Transitional Cabinet of Belarus

Following the disputed 2020 Belarusian presidential election, opposition forces, led by presidential candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya formed a Coordination Council to facilitate a transition to democracy in the country. Tsikhanouskaya and several other members of the council were forced to leave Belarus or were placed under arrest during protests that broke out following the election. The United Transitional Cabinet was formed on 9 August 2022 during a two-day conference in Vilnius after members of the Belarusian opposition requested Tsikhanouskaya to form "a united interim government". ==Aims and guidelines==

The stated aims of the United Transitional Cabinet are as follows: Article 4.3 of the agreement defines the powers of the "National Leader" (initially Tsikhanouskaya based on the 2020 presidential election) and of the Coordination Council in relation to appointing and dismissing cabinet members. Both the National Leader and the Coordination Council need to give the other 15 days for responses to proposed appointments or dismissals; the National Leader makes the final decision. ==Activities==

In August 2022, activities of the Cabinet included the preparation of legal documents to define structures, responsibilities, decision-making methods, and selection of staff. The Cabinet issued some awards: • the '''' (, ) - to be awarded to outstanding individuals who significantly help the cause of Belarusians. Recipients include Roberta Metsola, Stefan Eriksson and Þórdís Gylfadóttir. • the '''' - (, ) posthumously awarded to families of Belarusian soldiers fighting for Ukraine. ==Reaction==

The European Parliament passed a resolution welcoming the formation of the United Transitional Cabinet on 24 November 2022. The European Union did not recognise Lukashenko's claimed victory in the 2020 presidential election in Belarus stating that "These elections were neither free nor fair. The European Union considers their results falsified and therefore does not recognise the election results announced by the Central Election Commission of Belarus. Some leaders of the democratic movement in Belarus, including former presidential candidates, have not recognised the United Transitional Cabinet. Their main arguments are that no one elected the cabinet members, and therefore in their opinion the UTC does not represent the people. One former presidential candidate of 2010, Andrei Sannikov, called the members of the cabinet "impostors". They claim that many members of the cabinet are unknown in Belarus. On 30 August 2022, the KGB designated the Cabinet as an extremist group. A few months later, the Cabinet's Telegram channel was added to the list of extremist materials. The United Transitional Cabinet was designated as a "terrorist organisation" the Belarusian Prosecutor General's Office said on July 9 2025. ==Members==

Membership of the Cabinet was initially (in August 2022) planned to be for terms of six months. In August 2024, the name of the Foreign Affairs portfolio, run by Valery Kavaleuski until June 2024, was changed to "European and International Cooperation", with Vladzimir Astapenka taking the position. On 11 August 2025, Alisa Ryzhychenka was announced by Svitlana Tsikhanouskaya as the new Representative for Finances and Economy. Pavel Barkouski was appointed as the new Representative for National Revival, replacing Alina Koushyk. Irena Katsialovich and Andrei Larukhin were announced as Deputy Representatives of National Revival, being responsible for culture and education/science respectively. Tsikhanouskaya stated that she was looking to re-establish the position of Representative for Law and Order, a position that was given to Aliaksandr Azarau until his dismissal. ==See also==