The first signs of this shift were noticed in 2014 when Lukashenko, for the first time, gave the Independence Day speech in Belarusian.
Alexander Yarashevich thinks it is an attempt to distance from Russia in view of the (then) recent events in Ukraine.
Expansion of social functions and communicative possibilities of the Belarusian language, its full and comprehensive development alongside other elements of national culture act as guarantor of the state’s humanitarian security.
"[2][5] At the same time, Belarusian officials use an evasive language to indicate the "soft Belarusization" means neither distancing from Russia nor a definite turn to the West.
[6] Two new monuments, to Tadeusz Kościuszko and to Duke Algirdas, are also viewed as an element of enhancing the Belarusian identity as well as a confrontation with the Russian World: Kościuszko led a 1794 uprising against the Russian Empire and Algirdas expanded the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania with the lands of the modern Belarus.