MINSK, May 15 - Belarusian opposition activists appealed to Ukraine on Monday to offer some state university places to Belarusian students expelled from their own universities for protesting against their country's authoritarian leader.

The activists said they did not have exact numbers, but that up to 2,000 Belarusians had been arrested for participating in protests against President Alexander Lukashenko, many of them students. The students have faced jail time, and many have been thrown out of universities and fired from their jobs.