Around two dozen Belarusians staged a demonstration outside the European Commission Representation office in Vilnius on Friday. Their protest follows the expulsion of a Belarusian who fought for Ukraine, but was expelled from the EU and subsequently extradited from Vietnam to Minsk.
"People who support and fight for Ukraine must be protected and not pushed into danger," Tatyana, a Belarusian refugee, told reporters.
"We gathered here to show our protest against the illegitimate Lukashenko regime, which we've been fighting for five years, and we need international support," she said.
The woman added that the case of Vasil Verameichy, the former fighter in Ukraine who is now in the hands of the KGB, highlights the need for assistance and support for Belarusians who are fighting against Alexander Lukashenko's regime.
Further reading
"We hope this case will show that we need the kind of global support that Ukrainians are getting. Belarusians are in the same situation as Ukrainians because Russia is trying to seize our territory, just using different methods – through propaganda and ideology," she said.
Verameychyk, an IT worker who served in the Belarusian army, took part in mass protests against authoritarian Lukashenko in 2020 and was detained for ten days at the time.
The man moved to Ukraine in 2021, and when Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, he joined the Kalinowski Regiment, a group of Belarusian volunteers fighting on Kyiv's side.
Verameychyk was detained in Vietnam on November 13 and extradited to Belarus on November 14.
Before leaving for Vietnam, he applied for a temporary residence permit in Lithuania, where his wife and daughter live, but his request was denied. According to the Lithuanian State Security Department (VSD), his presence in Lithuania would pose a national security risk.
Another participant in the protest, who wished to remain anonymous, told BNS that Lithuanian authorities typically consider individuals who have worked in Belarusian state services, the military, or law enforcement as national security threats.
"However, you have to understand that a huge part of Belarusians, who had been previously politically inactive, changed their position in 2020. The fact that Vasil served in the army and left shows that [...] he changed his political position," the woman said.
Newsletter
Every Friday morning.
