Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya says she fled abroad for the sake of her children after leader Alexander Lukashenko's victory claim in Sunday's presidential election prompted bloody street protests.
At least one person died during two nights of clashes between security forces and opposition supporters who accuse Mr Lukashenko, in power since 1994, of rigging his re-election.
Western nations have also branded the vote unfair and unfree.
Belarus's interior ministry said more than 2000 people were detained after the clashes on Monday night, in which it said 21 police and security service personnel were injured, with five taken to hospital.
Ms Tikhanovskaya, a 37-year-old former English teacher who took her husband's place on the ballot after he was jailed, fled to neighbouring Lithuania from where she urged her compatriots not to oppose the police and to avoid putting their lives in danger.
Protests on the streets of Minsk the day after the presidential election, 10 August 2020. Source: AP
"You know, I thought that this whole campaign had really toughened me up and given me so much strength that I could handle anything," she said in an emotional video.
"But, probably, I'm still the weak woman I was in the first place.
"I have made a very difficult decision for myself," she said, adding that the political tumult in Belarus was not worth anyone losing their life for.
"Children are the main thing in life," said Ms Tikhanovskaya.
Although Syarhei, her husband, an anti-government blogger, remains in jail in Belarus, she was reunited with her children in Lithuania whom she had earlier moved abroad after receiving anonymous threats about their safety.
The mood on the streets of Minsk was calmer during the daytime on Tuesday but witnesses saw riot police outside several factories in Minsk amid calls on anti-Lukashenko social media channels for a general strike.
People laid flowers at the site in central Minsk where the protester died in Monday's clashes.
Mr Lukashenko has compared the protesters to criminal gangs and dangerous revolutionaries with shadowy foreign backers.
State media on Tuesday showed detained young men with their hands behind their backs, calling them "Russian provocateurs".
Belarus has strained relations with Moscow, though President Vladimir Putin used a congratulatory telegram to nudge Lukashenko to accept closer ties.
Mr Lukashenko has long accused Russia of aiming to swallow up his nation of 9.5 million people.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko Source: AAP
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius said Ms Tikhanovskaya had found herself in an impossible situation.
"She apparently faced certain pressure and did not have much choice but to leave the country," he told a news conference.
"Apparently, the other choice was not compatible with freedom, so she needed to take the offered possibility to leave the country, and used it," he said.
Lithuania had given her a one-year visa and a place to stay, he added, saying it would ensure her safety.
Official results in Sunday's election gave her only around 10 per cent of the vote compared to Mr Lukashenko's 80 per cent.
But she and her supporters said the ballot was rigged and that she was the real winner.
