IT specialist Ihar Karatkou is in the middle of a five-year sentence at Corrective Colony No. 2, a prison in Babruysk, southeast of Minsk. Why? He donated the equivalent of about $10 to the Kastus Kalinouski Regiment, a unit of Belarusian volunteers fighting on Kyiv’s side in the Russian war against Ukraine.
Vasil Hrachykha was also sentenced to five years in prison earlier this year, but his whereabouts are unknown. He fought with the Kalinouski Regiment for a few weeks in May-June 2022, according to the regiment and the Belarusian Prosecutor-General’s Office.
A state television report showed a man purported to be Hrachykha being detained in an unidentified swampy area by armed officers of the KGB, the Belarusian security agency, and flown away by helicopter with a bag over his head.
Karatkou, 37, and Hrachykha, 44, are among about 200 Belarusians who activists say have been handed prison terms after being convicted of violating a law against “participation or preparing to participate in hostilities on foreign soil” as well as recruiting for, training for, and financing such activities, among other things.
Many of them, including Karatkou and Hrachykha, are on the prominent Belarusian human rights group Vyasna’s list of people it has designated as political prisoners under authoritarian leader Aleksandr Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994.
In December, there were more than 1,130 names on that list -- even after a series of prisoner releases that analysts say is part of an effort by Lukashenko to improve ties with the West despite his government’s support for Russia in its war on neighboring Ukraine, and a still-spiraling state crackdown that started as a brutal police response to massive protests over an August 2020 election that extended his rule and was dismissed as a sham by millions in Belarus and beyond.
On December 13, Belarus freed 123 prisoners in a US-brokered release, including some prominent opposition figures, after Washington indicated it was lifting sanctions on Belarusian fertilizer exports.
'I Can't Stand To Watch'
Among those released was Alyaksey Kaplich. In March of this year, the day after he turned 18, he set out to travel to Ukraine to fight on Kyiv’s side -- but was detained at the airport in Minsk before he could board a flight to Tbilisi, the first leg of an abortive journey to the front.
They put “a sack over my head, handcuffs, and drove me in a minibus, lying down” with the boots of a special forces officer pressing on his back and legs, Kaplich told RFE/RL in an interview in Vilnius on December 22.
Kaplich, who learned in 2020 that he is a second cousin of exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, was convicted in the summer and sentenced to two years in prison.
Now that he is free, he plans to make the trip to Ukraine and join a unit there.
“I can’t stand to watch how they…bomb and kill -- intentionally kill -- peaceful civilians,” Kaplich told RFE/RL when asked why he wants to fight against the Russian invasion. “I just can’t watch it anymore.”
Russia denies it targets civilians despite mounting civilian casualties and many direct hits by drones, missiles, and guided bombs on apartment buildings, shopping malls, and other civilian facilities -- often far from the front lines -- since the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022.
It was unclear whether any other prisoners convicted of planning to fight in Ukraine or otherwise supporting its defense were among those released along with Kaplich and 122 others.
“However, no individuals who had directly participated in hostilities as members of armed forces were released on December 13,” Maryna Kasinerava, a representative of the human rights group Dissidentby, told RFE/RL.
'Mercenaries Fighting For Russia Are Not Prosecuted'
Belarusian citizens and permanent residents are prohibited from participating in foreign armed formations on any side in a war or taking part in armed conflicts without state authorization. The relevant statute also outlaws “recruiting, training, preparation” and “financing or other material support for such activity.”
However, Kasinerava says the law is applied selectively.
“Mercenaries fighting for Russia are not prosecuted in Belarus,” she said. By contrast, she said, those linked to Ukraine may face systematic repression, including pressure on relatives, violence, and in some cases torture.
An example is Dzianis Urbanovich, who has been fighting in Ukraine since the early in the full-scale war. He said his father in Belarus has repeatedly had his home searched and was forced to write an appeal to his son to return, and security forces have also visited other relatives and friends.
Under Lukashenko, Belarus is Russia’s close military ally and has backed Moscow’s war against Ukraine, providing logistical support and echoing Kremlin threats toward NATO. Yet since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, hundreds of Belarusians have crossed into Ukraine to fight on Kyiv’s side.
“Punishing and sentencing people who fought for Ukraine is more likely Lukashenko’s own decision than the result of pressure from the Kremlin,” said Artsyom Shraybman, a Belarusian political analyst who lives abroad.
'Imprisonment Is Being Applied Arbitrarily'
“Lukashenko understands these people are very ideological and principled in being anti-Russian -- and, by extension, very likely anti-regime,” said Shraybman, a nonresident scholar at the Berlin-based Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, meaning that the state’s assumption is that they oppose Lukashenko and the authorities under him.
Belarusian state media have highlighted several alleged cases of support for Ukraine. Twenty-year-old Danila Harasim appeared in a film aired by the ONT television channel, accused of photographing military equipment in late 2023 and passing the images to Ukrainian intelligence, as well as attempting to join the Kalinouski Regiment. The broadcast claimed he planned to sabotage a train and said he faced charges including attempted treason. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Rights groups say some Belarusian volunteers have been tried in absentia under so-called “special proceedings,” with at least 10 people believed to have been sentenced while abroad. At least 15 others were convicted for allegedly attempting to go to war.
Only a handful of people are known to have been detained and convicted inside Belarus specifically for fighting for Ukraine. Those cases have resulted in terms ranging from five to 13 years in prison.
“This offense under the Criminal Code is not classified as a serious crime and provides for alternative penalties to imprisonment,” said Paval Sapelka, a lawyer with Vyasna. “However, largely for political reasons, imprisonment is being applied arbitrarily.”
In his comments to RFE/RL in Vilnius, Kaplich said he hoped for the swift release of Vasil Verameychyk, a former deputy battalion commander in the Kalinouski Regiment who was subsequently declared a "threat to national security" by Lithuania and banned from entering that country. He was also not allowed into Ukraine for unknown reasons when he tried to return there.
Verameychyk traveled to Vietnam, where he was detained and handed over to Belarus. He was then tried on 12 criminal charges and sentenced to 13 years in a maximum-security prison.
Belarusian human rights groups, which largely operate in exile, continue to hope for the release of more people in the future.
“We will keep documenting all political prisoners, including those who supported or fought for Ukraine. We hope everyone will be released and the repression will end,” Kasinerava said.
