Asked if the United States would recognize the results of the Belarus election, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the Trump administration acknowledges that elections in the Eastern European country “weren’t free, they weren’t fair,” Global News reported.

He did not go so far as to state that the U.S. would not recognize the Belarusian government.

Presidential elections were held in Belarus on August 9.

After the voting, which, according to the Central Election Commission, incumbent Aleksandr Lukashenko won by 80.08% of the votes, mass protests started across the country, then they turned into clashes with police, and one protester had died during the demonstrations.