Thousands of Belarusians on Thursday afternoon took to the streets of Minsk in a massive rally as the presidential election campaign is nearing completion.

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The action was led by an opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the local edition TUT.BY reports.

The event was held at the Friendship of Peoples Park from 16:00 to about 22:00.

Human rights activists claim some 34,000 people attended the rally.

Three representatives of the opposition's joint campaign headquarters addressed the crowd, telling of how they had suffered from persecution during the campaigning period.

Police and security forces were in place, but did not interfere.

At the end of the rally, protesters turned on flashlights on their cellphones.

As UNIAN reported earlier, Belarus said it would strengthen its border with Russia following the arrest of 33 Russian members of the Wagner PMC, believed to be led by Vladimir Putin's ally Yevgeny Prigozhin. Minsk authorities say the group has been deployed to destabilize the country in the election period.