⁍ Police detained at least 235 people on Monday as the Belarusian opposition sought to intensify pressure on veteran leader Alexander Lukashenko with a nationwide strike.

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⁍ Lukashenko defied an ultimatum to surrender power by midnight, challenging his opponents to carry out a threat to paralyse the country with strikes.

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⁍ If sustained, the strikes could open a new phase in the crisis, testing whether the opposition has the mass support it needs to bring enterprises across the country to a halt.

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– Opposition leaders in Belarus have given President Alexander Lukashenko a last-minute deadline to step down—or they will paralyse the country with a nationwide strike. Factory workers chanted slogans, students and pensioners took to the streets, and police detained at least 235 people on Monday as the Belarusian opposition sought to intensify pressure on veteran leader Lukashenko with a nationwide strike, Reuters reports. Lukashenko defied an ultimatum to surrender power by midnight, challenging his opponents to carry out a threat to paralyse the country with strikes, nearly three months after his disputed election victory unleashed mass protests. If sustained, the strikes could open a new phase in the crisis, testing whether the opposition has the mass support it needs to bring enterprises across the country of 9.5 million people to a halt. The opposition has mounted strikes at state-run factories previously, but they were not sustained. Belarusian media reported groups of strikers at many major state-controlled enterprises. However, a spokeswoman said all the major industrial companies were working normally. Hundreds of university students took to the streets in the capital, clapping and chanting as passing cars tooted their horns in support. Elsewhere in Minsk, black-clad officers in masks poured out of vans, detaining people and dragging them away, footage from news website Tutby showed. Unidentified men shot at human chains in two places with paintball guns. The Vesna-96 rights group said police had detained 235 people across the country on Monday.