KIEV, October 2. /TASS/. Ukraine plans to join the European Union’s sanctions Belarusian officials, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said on Friday.

"I want to see the final legal decision, who is on the blacklist. But, yes, we are set to join these sanctions because it is a matter of policy coherence," he told the BBC Ukrainian service.

Earlier in the day, the European Union issued a blacklist of 44 Belarusian senior officials. The list includes Interior Minister Yuri Karayev and chairwoman of the Central Election Commission Lydia Yermoshina. President Alexander Lukashenko was not put on the sanction list.

According to the Ukrainian foreign minister, his country should act in a consolidated way with its partners. "We are doing our best to help the Belarusian people in this difficult situation," he said.

Nationwide demonstrations have engulfed Belarus following the August 9 presidential election. According to the Central Election Commission’s official results, incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko won by a landslide, garnering 80.10% of the vote. His closest rival in the race, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, came in second, with 10.12% of the ballot. However, she refused to recognize the election’s outcome, and left Belarus for Lithuania. After the results of the exit polls were announced late on August 9, mass protests erupted in downtown Minsk and other Belarusian cities. During the early post-election period, the rallies snowballed into fierce clashes between the protesters and police. The current unrest is being cheered on by the opposition’s Coordination Council, which has been beating the drum for more protests. In response, the Belarusian authorities have castigated the ongoing turmoil and demanded that these unauthorized demonstrations be stopped.