Chernihiv border guards and SBU do not allow Belarusian activists to Euromaidan

The troubles of Belarusian activists who went to Kyiv to support Ukrainians on Euromaidan continue, Charter’97 reports. After the detention of a bus with activists by Belarusian police on December 6, the problems of Belarusians did not end with crossing the Belarusian-Ukrainian border. Now they have new difficulties – already on Ukrainian territory, at the checkpoint across the state border “Novi Yarylovychi”. On the afternoon of December 7, all passengers of the Gomel-Chernihiv bus, in which the activists were traveling, were detained.

According to Maksym Vinyarsky, an activist of the civil campaign “European Belarus”, “Ukrainian border guards gathered all Belarusians, drove 4 people to “interviews, briefings” and will take receipts that we will not violate the law… This is savagery. They are filming on camera, asking who you are, where you are going, what you will do…”.

The activists are being interrogated one by one, called into the office, filming the conversation on camera. At the same time, they are demanding to give a receipt stating that they did not participate in mass events.

After the Ukrainian border guards talked to all the passengers and took a signature stating that they did not participate in mass events, a squad with a dog approached the bus. According to the activists, during a search of the bus, drugs were found under one of the seats. A young man who was sitting in this place was detained. This is a representative of the youth organization “Alternative” Dmitry Silchenko. The young man denies his guilt.

As of 10:00 on December 8,


the Roma from Belarus and Ukraine have been

at the border for almost a day

. This is a regular Gomel-Chernihiv bus, with completely different people on board. Presumably, the Ukrainian special services will arrive only

on Sunday, December 8

, and by this time all 45 passengers have been detained in the border crossing building

in

.

“SBU officers are summoning bus passengers based on a pre-prepared list. I think it was compiled according to data transmitted from Belarus. Even before leaving Gomel, police officers entered the bus and compiled a list of passengers.

People are asked the same questions, and they are not related to drugs. They ask about their place of study and work, membership in public and political organizations, and the purpose of their arrival in Ukraine. The latter is of the utmost interest. I think their main goal is to prevent our presence at the rally, which will begin in an hour in Kyiv, but I do not exclude that based on the results of the interrogation, one of the Belarusian activists may be detained for a longer period,” said one of the bus passengers.

The interrogations are not over yet. Activists who have already passed them are still not allowed to continue their journey.

At the same time, according to the initiative, another bus, which was heading from Belarus to Kyiv on December 7 in support of Euromaidan, was stopped by the Chernihiv traffic police, as a result of the conversations, the wheels were punctured. People were forced to get around by hitchhiking and all possible modes of transport.

Let us recall that 9 years ago, during the “Orange Revolution”, Chernihiv border guards, the Security Service of Ukraine and the police already had experience in blocking entry and using unlawful violence against Belarusian activists who were traveling to support the “Orange Maidan” in Kyiv. Despite the criminal cases initiated, none of the guilty law enforcement officers were ever punished. More about those events here: .