Many Belarusians have joined the Ukrainian resistance, sometimes taking up arms, sometimes organizing sabotage against the dictatorship of Alexander Lukashenko, more than ever in the pay of the Kremlin. Belarusian dissidence links its destiny to that of Ukraine, whose victory against the invader proves to be inevitable for the achievement of democracy in their country.
He has the frail look of one returning from convalescence. His skinny hands betray the “21 kilos” he has lost in recent months. Yuri, cap pulled down on his head, admits he is “a little tired”. The 36-year-old man, who prefers to keep his last name secret for security reasons, is nevertheless preparing to return to the Ukrainian front.
“I miss my classmates,” he says. The last time he was there was April 22, and he almost died there. The counter-offensive in which he and soldiers then took part in the region of Kherson, a city in southern Ukraine occupied by the Russians, had gone wrong. Russian troops pounded their positions, and the field they were advancing through was riddled with mines.
Yuri’s medical report: a serious injury to the ears, another to the legs, “but especially one to the stomach”. Treated for a time in Warsaw, here he is preparing to go back on a mission, even if he admits that he is “not completely cured”.
On this July afternoon, there are about twenty men, like him, waiting in the backyard of the Belarusian House. It is aboard vehicles parked within the confines of the headquarters of this dissident organization, located in the Polish capital, that the group will soon take the direction of Ukraine at war. All joined the ranks of Kastous Kalinowski, a regiment of the Ukrainian army made up entirely of Belarusians. Born in the wake of the aggression launched by Moscow on February 24, it is one of the largest military corps of foreign volunteers to fight in Ukraine. A symbolic alliance that testifies to the importance that this war represents in the eyes of many Belarusians, quick to join the Ukrainian resistance.
Because for soldiers like Yuri, this is a “problem common to Ukrainians and Belarusians alike”. Alexander Lukashenko, dictator for more than a quarter of a century, is subservient to the Kremlin. His fraudulent re-election, on August 9, 2020, had given rise to an unprecedented uprising in the “last dictatorship in Europe”.
Draped in white-red-white, colors of protest, they had been hundreds of thousands to pound the pavement in the four corners of the country to demand free elections. But the regime’s response was one of repression with totalitarian overtones. NGOs and independent media have been liquidated, and opponents either thrown into regime jails or forced into exile by the thousands. The number of political prisoners is more than 1,200, according to the Belarusian human rights organization Viasna.
A battalion turned regiment
The despot of Minsk, targeted by a host of Western sanctions, now owes his political survival to Vladimir Putin, whose vassal he has become. Russian troops were thus posted on Belarusian territory, from which missiles were launched towards Ukraine, according to information from kyiv. What cause the “shame” of Valeri, 46 years old. He also made the choice to join the Kastous Kalinowski regiment, named after the famous writer and hero of the national renaissance of the 19th century.e century.
Exiled to Poland for two years, the father wishes to remain anonymous, for fear of reprisals against his family still living in Belarus. Valeri nevertheless admits to feeling a certain feverishness: he has no military experience. Once arrived in kyiv, he will first learn to hold a weapon, before being dispatched to the front.
First formed as a single battalion, Kastous Kalinowski’s troops were recently awarded the title of regiment by the Ukrainian armed forces. A rise in rank which readily irritates Alexander Lukashenko, who had already qualified these fighters, in mid-March, as “crazy citizens”.
The regiment can count on the support of the Belarusian House, in Warsaw, whose premises serve as their HQ. “Since February, a hundred tons of equipment have passed through here, to supply our guys,” says Ales Zarembiuk, its founder, who mentions in particular medical equipment, canned food and dozens of vehicles. On the ground floor of the building drags a bulletproof vest decorated with a white-red-white crest, freshly delivered by Belarusians from the diaspora.
Almost every week, new recruits leave for Ukraine, many of whom were settled in Poland, Ukraine or Lithuania, centers of Belarusian exile. In the name of military secrecy, Pavel Kuchta, chief recruiter of the Kastous Kalinowski regiment, cannot reveal the number of men mobilized. But they would be nearly 300, not counting the other Belarusian volunteer formations.
At least a dozen Belarusian soldiers are said to have died in combat. In order to prevent undercover agents from the Belarusian KGB from interfering with the regiment, a “verification” process is carried out beforehand by the “cyberpartisan”, a group of former employees of the high technology sector in Belarus having turned against the regime.
At only 24 years old, and with experience as a volunteer soldier in 2014 in the Donbass, Pavel Kuchta has a full military career. Athletic build and patriotic tattoos on his body, the Belarusian also has a personal story intimately linked to the commitment he leads, namely to see the emergence of a “free and independent Belarus”.
In the summer of 2020, at the height of the peaceful protest movement against Lukashenko, his half-brother, Nikita Krivtsov, was found hanged in a forest on the edge of Minsk. A political assassination disguised as suicide, he is convinced. Pavel Kuchta is nonetheless driven by a spirit of revenge. He links the destiny of his country to that of Ukraine. “Because to fight for Ukraine is to defend their freedom, but also ours. Many Belarusians have understood this. Ukraine’s victory is vital, and Lukashenko won’t be able to hold on if he loses his ally in Putin. »
network of saboteurs
The collaboration of the mustachioed dictator with Putin does not enjoy any popular support in the country. According to some independent polls, no less than three-quarters of Belarusians oppose the idea of their country being jointly responsible for the Kremlin’s aggression.
“Belarus has suffered a lot from wars throughout its history, and many are afraid that it will spill over to their homes,” says Svetlana Tikhanovskaïa, the face of the Belarusian opposition, met by The duty in Vilnius, capital of Lithuania, where she was exiled. “Belarusians don’t feel like they belong to this so-called ‘Russian empire’: we are peaceful people, as was our revolution in 2020. We are against Lukashenko, we don’t want our country to be an outcast, on the side of the aggressors. »
In Belarus, demonstrating has become too dangerous. So resistance to the regime takes on an underground form. A network of anti-war saboteurs has undermined, over the past five months, the delivery of Russian military equipment transiting on Belarusian railways. Those who get their hands on the collar now risk the death penalty.
These sabotages, numbering in the dozens, but constantly decreasing due to intense repression, stem from individual initiatives that have not fundamentally endangered the regime. But “these heroic gestures are a reminder of society’s opposition to war”, tempers Pavel Usov, director of the Warsaw-based Center for Political Analysis and Forecasting.
The Belarusian political scientist, exiled in Poland, went to kyiv in the spring to lead a conference with Kastous Kalinowski’s fighters on the importance of forging a “long-term political vision” within the regiment. Because, in the event of a victory for Ukraine, the reach of Kastous Kalinowski’s troops will have to expand to the country’s borders. “They will have to become an important lever for change in Belarus. This represents a clear threat to the Lukashenko regime,” said the researcher.
The ideal scenario following a Russian defeat, according to him, would be the outright fall of the regime of Alexander Lukashenko, who would be forced to flee. The other is that of an unpredictable and more brutal outcome, where Lukashenko would try to cling to power at all costs. Stop falling into violence. And that, Yuri, the soldier who is about to join the Ukraine, is well aware of it.
This “combat experience” that he and his comrades are about to acquire, he hopes to use, one day, in his native Belarus. “Two years ago, we failed to dislodge Lukashenko peacefully with human chains and flowers. But today, Belarusians are taking up arms, and this is preparing the ground for a possible confrontation with the regime. With the hope that after having helped Ukraine, it will also come to support us when the time comes. »