Protesters gather in front of the Minsk Tractor Works Plant to support workers leaving the plant after their work shift in Minsk, Belarus, on Wednesday.

Dmitri Lovetsky/AP

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Dmitri Lovetsky/AP

Protesters gather in front of the Minsk Tractor Works Plant to support workers leaving the plant after their work shift in Minsk, Belarus, on Wednesday.

Dmitri Lovetsky/AP

The European Union on Wednesday said it does not recognize the results of Belarus’ Aug. 9 presidential election, calling the poll fraudulent as it promised to sanction individuals responsible for the violence that has followed.

“These elections were neither free nor fair and did not meet international standards,” President of the European Council Charles Michel said at the end of a virtual summit of EU leaders calling to discuss the situation in Belarus.

“The EU will impose shortly sanctions on a substantial number of individuals responsible for violence, repression and election fraud,” he said.

The vote earlier this month, in which long-time President Alexander Lukashenko claimed an overwhelming victory and an unprecedented sixth consecutive term amid accusations of massive election fraud, has sparked nationwide protests in Belarus and a brutal crackdown by security forces.

The protests, involving hundreds of thousands of Belarusians across the country, have grown in recent days, with workers at giant state-owned factories walking off their jobs to join the demonstrations.

“The people of Belarus want change and they want it now,” EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said at a news conference following the meeting.

“We are impressed by the courage of the people of Belarus. For exactly ten days since the presidential election took place, the people of Belarus have taken to the streets in unprecedented numbers,” she said. “They want democracy and new presidential elections as these elections were neither fair nor free.”

Lukashenko’s main opponent in the race, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, was forced to flee the country after the results were announced. She initially conceded defeat from exile but has since since called for international mediation to resolve the political standoff.

In recent days, Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered unspecified “security assistance” to Lukashenko, even as his security forces were denounced at home and abroad for violently quashing peaceful protests against the government.

Russia on Wednesday called external pressure from EU countries “unacceptable.”

“We consider that Belarusians will iron out their own problems in the framework of dialogue, within the legal framework and without any foreign meddling,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow.

Lukashenko also announced on Tuesday that Belarus forces were being deployed on the country’s western borders in response to criticism of his government with Belarus’ NATO-member neighbors there — Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.

Following Wednesday’s EU meeting, Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said he was not concerned by troop movements.

“As part of normal, routine actions we are looking at what is happening behind our border and at the moment there are no reasons for concern,” Morawiecki said at a news conference.