Polish safety company to analyze disappearance of Belarus’s opposition activist amid fears of overseas involvement.
Russian, Belarusian safety companies plan violent assaults on Belarusian diaspora, Lithuanian Safety Division says.
Russian FSB detains Belarus citizen allegedly making ready to hold out "terrorist act" on behalf of Ukraine's SBU.
Lithuania to fortify second Suwalki Hole route, considered as some of the doubtless targets for a future Russian assault on NATO, Politico experiences.
Viasna Human Rights Middle volunteer launched after serving full time period.
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Poland’s Inner Safety Company to analyze disappearance of Belarus opposition activist
The case of lacking Belarusian opposition activist Anzhalika Melnikava has been handed over to Poland’s Inner Safety Company, the ABW, to examine for the potential involvement of overseas intelligence companies, Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita reported on April 16.
Exiled Belarusian political activist and speaker of the Belarusian opposition’s Coordination Council Melnikava went lacking on March 25. 4 weeks later, her whereabouts stay unknown, though indicators from her telephone have been reportedly traced to Belarus, elevating alarm amongst members of the exiled Belarusian opposition, who worry being focused by the Belarusian regime’s brokers.
In keeping with Rzeczpospolita, the disappearance case, initially opened by police within the Polish capital Warsaw, has been transferred to the Nationwide Prosecutor’s Workplace’s Lublin Division of Organized Crime and Corruption, which makes a speciality of investigating probably the most severe crimes — together with espionage. The transfer means that there is perhaps proof of extraordinary circumstances, like kidnapping or homicide, that must be investigated by a better authority, Michal Potocki, the editor of Poland’s largest authorized journal, Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, advised U.S. broadcaster RFE/RL.
Earlier police enquiries did not make clear the circumstances of Melnikava’s disappearance, with a number of variations of occasions being mentioned, starting from kidnapping by a overseas intelligence company, or that Melnikava was appearing on behalf of such companies, or the misappropriation of the opposition’s funds.
The Nationwide Prosecutor’s Workplace consultant, Katarzyna Calów-Jaszewska, advised the press that the ABW was investigating the case below fees of deprivation of liberty and different undisclosed articles of the Felony Code.
A former Coca-Cola government, Anzhalika Melnikava joined anti-Lukashenko protests in Belarus in 2020 and left the nation fearing prosecution. In Might 2024, she was elected speaker of the Coordination Council, heading the brand new incarnation of the exiled opposition construction, branded because the “proto-parliament.” Melnikava dealt with funds for the Coordination Council and Cyberpartizans, a hacker group behind the assaults on the regime’s digital infrastructure.
In keeping with Poland’s Inner Affairs Ministry, Melnikava had not been in Poland for a number of weeks on the time of her reported disappearance, and one among her gadgets was traced to Belarus on March 19. Conflicting proof says that she had traveled to the UK whereas her two daughters have been in Belarus with their father. The household isn’t planning to report her disappearance, journalists have discovered.
Notably, Belarusian propaganda has not talked about the case, not like that of the previous volunteer fighter in Ukraine, Vasyl Verameichyk, whose extradition from Vietnam to Belarus was coated by Belarusian state-run tv.
Melnikava’s case appeared within the background of Belarus’s legislation enforcers’ fixed makes an attempt to silence exiled opposition figures. All 257 contenders for the Coordination Council seats had felony investigations opened towards them.
Polish prosecutors are additionally now investigating an alleged plot to homicide Pavel Latushka, one other distinguished opposition chief. Furthermore, Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko’s brokers are additionally suspected of being behind the murders of Belarusian opposition activist Very important Shyshou in 2021, and journalist Pavel Sharamet in 2016 in Kyiv.
Russian, Belarusian secret companies plot violent assaults on Belarusian diaspora in Lithuania, State Safety Division says
Lithuania’s Division of State Safety or VSD stated on April 23 that it had uncovered a plot by Russian and Belarusian intelligence companies to commit violent assaults towards Belarusians residing within the nation.
Lithuania, which neighbors Belarus, hosts 50,000 Belarusian exiles and the workplace of Belarusian opposition chief Svitlana Tsikhanouskaya, who was pressured to flee her homeland after reportedly beating Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko within the 2020 presidential elections. Lithuania has sided with Belarusians protesting Lukashenko’s contested “re-election” and has confronted a backlash from his regime within the types of a man-made migration disaster, a crackdown on the Lithuanian diaspora in Belarus, and Lukashenko’s frequent verbal assaults on the nation.
The Russian and Belarusian intelligence companies have stepped up their operations in Lithuania, with the primary makes an attempt to commit violent assaults on representatives of the Belarusian neighborhood being recorded, in keeping with the VSD.
The VSD discovered overseas brokers attempting to lure Belarusian college students in Vilnius with a simple one-time gig to a distant location the place they have been to be ambushed and crushed. The would-be attackers have been supplied with precise places, timing and particulars of the victims’ look.
“The organizers are attempting to create the looks of a battle between two warring forces — Belarusians selling the ideology of Litvinism, and Lithuanian teams allegedly opposing them,” the VSD stated.
In 2023, Belarusian intelligence was allegedly behind the so-called “Litvinism” motion — a fringe historic Belarusian revisionist concept that claims the Lithuanian capital Vilnius doesn’t belong to Lithuania. Graffiti in crooked Cyrillic studying “Vilnius is ours” began showing in Vilnius, and Lithuanian politicians obtained threats from alleged “Litvinist” teams.
In 2024, the assaults turned to buildings belonging to representatives of the Belarusian diaspora. Vandals set fireplace to a Belarusian home in Vilnius, shot at a chapel with pneumatic weapons, and left graffiti in poorly-spelled Lithuanian calling for Tsikhanouskaya to depart the nation.
The violent assault on Belarusians was to be the subsequent step on this staged “battle,” the VSD stated.
The scale of the Belarusian diaspora in Lithuania has shrunk considerably, dropping from over 62,000 in January 2024 to 53,700 in April 2025, in keeping with Lithuania’s Migration Division.
In 2024 alone, almost 600 residence permits for Belarusians have been revoked on nationwide safety grounds, typically as a result of their holders having served within the navy prior to now and even having been employed in non-sensitive roles like financial institution name facilities.
The Kyiv IndependentAsami Terajima
Russia’s FSB detains Belarusian allegedly planning ‘terrorist act on behalf of SBU’
Russia’s Federal Safety Service or FSB introduced on April 18 that it had detained a Belarusian citizen who had been “making ready a terrorist act within the pursuits of the Safety Service of Ukraine (SBU),” in keeping with an official FSB press launch.
The FSB claimed the detained overseas citizen was recruited by the SBU in December 2024 to assemble details about the places of Black Sea Fleet ships, Russian military personnel in Krasnodar Krai, and to hold out "terrorist assaults."
In a video launched by the FSB, an unidentifiable detainee claims to be a Belarusian citizen. Together with his face blurred within the footage, he recites the script, stating that his “SBU curator” instructed him to hold out the assault “to disrupt negotiations between the USA, Russia, and Ukraine” and escalate the battle.
Russian brokers allegedly discovered a 2.5-kilogram improvised explosive gadget that they stated was to have been planted in an administrative constructing in Novorossiysk. The FSB opened a felony case on the suspect on fees of making ready to commit a terrorist act — fees punishable by 10-20 years in jail.
This isn’t the primary such case reported by Russia. In December 2023, a Belarusian nationwide, Siarhei Yerameyeu, was detained in Omsk and accused of blowing up two trains on the Baikal-Amur Mainline in Buryatia. Yerameyeu continues to be in Russian custody awaiting trial.
Belarusian and Russian legislation enforcers are infamous for acquiring false confessions by utilizing numerous types of psychological strain and bodily torture.
Lithuania to bolster second route by way of Suwalki hole close to Belarus, Politico experiences
Lithuania is to improve and fortify the second important highway main by way of the Suwalki hole, the NATO choke level squeezed between the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad and its ally Belarus, Politico reported on April 18.
The Suwalki hole is a 100-kilometer-wide stretch of NATO territory connecting Poland and Lithuania, bordered by Belarus and Russia’s Kaliningrad, which is considered as a primary goal in any potential Russian navy assault on the alliance.
“These roads (are) crucial to us from a safety and protection perspective,” Lithuanian Deputy Protection Minister Tomas Godliauskas advised Politico. “They’ve all the time been a part of our civil-military planning as key floor routes for allied help throughout a disaster.”
At the moment, all navy mobility between Lithuania and Poland is ensured by Through Baltica, the highway between Lithuania’s former capital Kaunas and Warsaw, and the high-speed railroad Rail Baltica. The undertaking will improve 113 kilometers of highway and renovate eight bridges from the capital, Vilnius, to the Polish border city of Augustow. It’s anticipated to be accomplished by 2028.
Lithuania expects to safe European funding for the undertaking, which the Baltic state and Poland have collectively financed.
A 2022 report by Politico labeled the Suwalki hole “probably the most harmful place on Earth.”
After Russia launched its full-scale battle on Ukraine it quickly confronted sanctions, which in flip prompted Lithuania’s nationwide railroad provider to refuse transit of sure items from Belarus to Kaliningrad, together with coal, metals, and constructing supplies.
On the time, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s staunch ally, Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko, stated Lithuania’s resolution to adjust to EU sanctions “resembles a declaration of battle.” Over a 12 months later, in November 2023, First Deputy State Secretary of the Belarusian Safety Council Pavel Muraveiko claimed Belarus has each proper to “pave a hall” by way of Lithuania to transit items.
Safety tensions within the area are set to rise: In September 2025, Belarus is holding Zapad (West) navy drills involving 13,000 Russian troops. In keeping with the Lithuanian International Minister Kęstutis Budrys, the precise scale of Zapad workout routines has a historical past of far exceeding the publicly declared numbers.
Threats towards NATO member states neighboring Belarus have been heard once more when the top of Russia’s International Intelligence Service, Sergey Naryshkin, visited Minsk on April 15 and claimed that Poland and the Baltic states have been “extremely aggressive” and can be the “first to endure” if there have been any “NATO aggression” towards the Russia-Belarus Union State.
Viasna volunteer launched after serving full time period in jail
Andrei Chapiuk, the volunteer of Belarus’s oldest human rights watchdog, the Viasna Human Rights Middle, was let loose on April 18 after serving 5 years and 9 months in jail.
In the meantime, 4 different Viasna advocates stay behind bars.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Viasna chairman Ales Bialiatski and three of his colleagues — the middle’s deputy chairman Valiantsin Stefanovich, lawyer Uladzimir Labkovich, and volunteer coordinator Marfa Rabkova — are serving virtually decade-long jail phrases after being prosecuted for his or her human rights advocacy.
Belarus’s oldest human rights group, Viasna has been documenting electoral fraud and human rights abuses by the regime of Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko since 1996.
Chapiuk was detained in October 2020 on fees of inciting social enmity, taking part in mass discord, and being a member of a felony group. Sentenced to 5 years and 9 months in jail over his involvement in human rights activism, the political prisoner was additionally formally declared to be an extremist and terrorist. Earlier than his launch, a handcuffed Chapiuk was taken for interrogation, Viasna reported.
Accused of “financing protests,” Bialiatski obtained a virtually 10-year jail time period, whereas two of his colleagues have been punished for 7-9 years. Rabkova obtained a particularly harsh sentence of virtually 15 years. All 4 have well being situations that cut back their probabilities of surviving imprisonment.
Lukashenko’s authorities branded Viasna an extremist group in 2023, outlawing any communication between activists and the victims of repression throughout the nation. Over 1,200 political prisoners are nonetheless held behind bars in Belarus within the aftermath of widespread anti-Lukashenko public protests in 2020.
The Kyiv IndependentKateryna Denisova