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Ukrainian men of conscription age who manage to illegally cross the border into Belarus are being interrogated by unknown individuals in civilian clothing. They are interested in the movement of Ukrainian military equipment and the locations of Russian missile and drone strikes.
This is reported in an article by Slidstvo.Info and the Belarusian Investigation Centre entitled ‘I need to know that the conscription office won’t take my husband away’: how the scheme for men to flee to Belarus works.
Participants in Telegram chats who have managed to flee share their experiences with those who are only planning to do so. Those who have fled talk about mandatory interrogations and suggest that the interviews are conducted by special services agents.
“You go into a room and sit behind a little grille. They lock you in. And you speak to them… Well, it’s clear that it’s either the KGB or the FSB,” one of the men told Slidstvo.Info. The main questions that interest Belarusian law enforcement officers are the whereabouts and movements of Ukrainian military personnel.
‘They ask you to point out positions. They ask where the equipment is being moved,’ says another chat participant.
‘They took our phones, they took our passports, they took everything. Their checks are funny, of course. He looks at me and says, “First Tank Brigade!” And he watches my reaction. And I sit there like a block of wood, looking at him,‘ adds another man.
It is almost impossible to avoid answering questions from Belarusian law enforcement officers, according to interlocutors of the journalist from Slidstvo.Info: ’You understand that the law doesn’t apply there. You can’t say, “You have no right”. If he wants to, he’ll take your phone. What can you say to him? That I forbid it?”
Andrii Demchenko, spokesperson for the State Border Service of Ukraine, believes that the increase in popularity of the route through Belarus is linked to the activities of organised criminal groups. “Those who flee are independent in their decision to leave Ukraine illegally, but they are not independent in choosing their route. That is, most of those we detain usually turn to criminal groups. Let’s call them organisers who facilitate illegal border crossings.”
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Volodymyr Zhyghar, a public representative of the Belarusian organisation BelPol, noted in a comment to Slidstvo.Info that the flow of evaders to Belarus is beneficial for Alexander Lukashenko’s system: “These people are taken under control, after which they are actually taken, figuratively speaking, to the border with the European Union. Because their main goal has essentially already been achieved — gathering information.‘
Andrii Soldatov, editor-in-chief of the website Agentura.ru, who is wanted by Russia, suggests that the information gathered in this way ‘may be passed on or promised to Naryshkin [Director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service Sergei Naryshkin] or Bortnikov [Director of the FSB Alexander Bortnikov], or Patrushev [Vladimir Putin’s assistant Nikolai Patrushev].
According to the State Border Service, in 2025, most Ukrainian men subject to military service who tried to flee through Belarus were detained in the border areas of Rivne and Zhytomyr oblasts, and less frequently in Volyn, Kyiv and Chernihiv oblasts.
