Ukrainian military intelligence told journalists that more than a thousand Belarusians had signed contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defence and gone to fight against Ukrainians. Some of the Belarusian mercenaries passed through the contract soldier selection point in Moscow, at 5 Yablochkova Street.
Journalists spoke to two dozen Belarusian contract soldiers and those who refused to go to war at the last minute. Among the interviewees were former security forces personnel, people convicted of serious crimes, handymen and even high-ranking officials who shared the plans of the Belarusian General Staff.
For more details, see the joint investigation by Slidstvo.Info, the Belarusian Investigation Centre, and KibOrg.
INTELLIGENCE
From 24 February 2022 to early July 2025, 1,031 citizens of the Republic of Belarus signed contracts with the Russian army, of whom 105 have already been killed and 84 are missing. This means that, with a high degree of probability, almost one in five is dead.
Journalists from Slidstvo.Info learned this from the latest information available to Ukrainian military intelligence. According to this data, the number of Belarusians who signed contracts with the Russian armed forces in 2023 increased 39 times compared to the first year of full-scale war in Ukraine. While there were six contract soldiers in 2022, there were already 235 in 2023 and 518 in 2024.
Journalists spoke to some Belarusians who decided to go to war on Russia’s side. They obtained their contacts from a leak in the Russian Federation’s Unified Medical Information and Analytical System. Among other things, it contains information about those who visited the Unified Conscription Point in Moscow, at 5 Yablochkova Street, from April 2023 to early June 2024.
BET ON CONTRACTORS
The results of 2022 were largely positive for Ukrainians: the defence forces repelled the Russians from the Kyiv, Sumy and virtually all of the Kharkiv regions. They recaptured Kherson, the only regional centre that Russian troops managed to seize during their offensive in the first months of the war.
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In 2023, the Kremlin placed its bets on contract soldiers. Volunteers are lured with high salaries and one-time payments. In Moscow, they are accepted at the Single Point of Conscription for Military Service. In 14 months, from April 2023 to early June 2024, 71 Belarusian citizens visited this place.
The single point of conscription for military service in Moscow. Image source: avatars.mds.yandex.net
Based on information obtained from the Single Military Conscription Point, journalists divided Belarusian volunteers into several categories: workers (people who earned their living through physical labour before the war), people with criminal records (almost half of the list) and security forces (former law enforcement officers and military personnel).
“I WAS MOBILISED IN DONETSK”
Workers were the largest group, with 52 people on the list working in various fields unrelated to the military: 11 in construction, 6 as drivers, 7 on a collective farm, etc. One of them is 31-year-old Fedir Halamba (Belarusian: Fedar Halamba), a former employee of the Klymovychi bread factory.
‘No one cares about human rights and morality because there is a war going on, and in war, all means are good,’ he shared his thoughts with a BIC journalist.
Halamba is an orphan from the Mohyliv oblast. He graduated from Kostiukovuchi Vocational Lyceum No. 8. At the age of 18, he went to work at the bread factory. In 2016, photos of Halamba with weapons and the flag of the so-called DPR appeared on his Odnoklassniki page.
Fedir Halamba / Photo: OK.ru
Halamba says he is stuck in the war: he was mobilised as a citizen of the Russian Federation. But at that time, according to the man, he did not yet have a Russian passport.
“I have problems with my former military unit because my previous military unit was disbanded. And my contract had already expired by that time, and instead of discharging me, they mobilised me. They mobilised me in Donetsk. The investigation is ongoing, but, as my lawyer says, I was not a citizen of the Russian Federation at that time,” Halamba says.
Volodymyr Yavorskyi, human rights activist Volodymyr Yavorskyi, human rights activist
According to human rights activist Volodymyr Yavorskyi, one option for Belarusians who want to escape from the Russian army is to desert: “I think they will try to commit desertion. These people have a complicated history. They have nowhere to run. The EU won’t accept them because they are nobodies there, and other countries, if they are friendly to Russia and Belarus, will hand them over.”
Fedir Halamba has not yet decided whether he is ready to sign a new contract if he manages to sort out what he considers to be illegal mobilisation. Contract soldiers, unlike those who have been mobilised, also receive one-off payments.
RISK OF PROSECUTION — MINIMAL
The list obtained by Slidstvo.Info contains criminal records for 31 individuals. Among them are 21 mercenaries, three who did not sign a contract, and two who plan to do so. Seven could not be contacted.
Artur Kozlov (Belarusian: Artur Kazloŭ), who appears on the list, served time for murder. Oleksandr Bielski (Belarusian: Alyaksandr Belski) received eight years in a maximum security prison for beating a woman with a stool and then raping her.
It is not known whether contracts were signed with Kozlov and Belsky. However, 52-year-old Oleh Takmakov (Belarusian: Aleh Takmakoŭ), a native of Homel, convicted of rape and theft as a repeat offender, successfully passed the selection process for a contract with the Russian Armed Forces, despite a federal law that makes this impossible.
Journalists called Takmakov. The man said that he was at war: “My contract has expired, but no one will let me go. I’m just serving without a contract”. He cannot return home because, in addition to Belarusian citizenship, he also has Russian citizenship. According to Vladimir Putin’s decree, contracts with Russian citizens remain valid until the end of the partial mobilisation period.
Oleh Takmakov / Photo: OK.ru
Oleh Skachkov-Bochurov (Belarusian: Aleh Skachkoŭ-Bachuraŭ) also had a criminal record. The contract with him was signed, but he did not go to the front. Not because of his criminal record, but because of his health.
“On 28 March, I was discharged due to my health. I had a heart attack. In Belarus, I worked in places of detention as an operative (probably an employee of the operative department, — ed.),” said Skachkov-Bochurov. When asked by a journalist if he was still interested in cooperating with the Russian Ministry of Defence, the man replied in the affirmative.
Andrei Yagodov (Belarusian: Andrej Jahadaŭ), convicted of theft and draft evasion, did not dare to go to war after visiting Yablochkova.
“You understand that there could be some kind of persecution, criminal liability”, he says.
But in practice, the risk of persecution of Belarusians for participating in the war on the side of Russia is minimal, explains Mykhailo Kyryliuk (Belarusian: Mikhail Kiryluk), a lawyer for the opposition Belarusian organisation People’s Anti-Crisis Management.
“In Belarus, there is an article according to which a person who serves for money in private formations of a foreign state without the consent of the authorities of that state, without citizenship of that country and permanent registration at the place of residence (in our case, in the Russian Federation) can be held liable. When these conditions coincide, a mercenary can be held liable. Formally speaking, this applies to Belarusians without a Russian passport who, for example, go to fight in Wagner (a Russian armed formation, ed.),” explains Kyryliuk.
‘YOU ARE RUSSIAN, KEEP GOING UNTIL VICTORY’
In the list received, Slidstvo.Info found nine former employees of Belarusian law enforcement agencies (the conditional group ‘security forces’). Six of them definitely signed contracts.
One of them is 61-year-old Serhii Burneiko (Belarusian: Siarhei Burneika).
In 1999, he commanded a unit of the paramilitary fire service of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Vitebsk district. “I am always for Russia. This is not the first time. I was on the front line. I finished my contract a year and a half ago,” says Burneiko.
Serhii Burneiko / Photo: OK.ru
Believing that he was communicating with a representative of the Single Recruitment Centre, Burneiko sent the journalist a copy of his contract. It makes it clear why some Belarusians obtain Russian citizenship before signing the documents: unlike foreigners, Russian mercenaries receive military mortgages, free medical care and insurance. But it is very difficult to leave. Burneiko managed to do so because of his age.
“They (the Russians, ed.) deliberately give them simplified citizenship. In other words, it is a mechanism for luring people in, and of course they deceive them a little in this sense, that’s obvious. Because they need to look for resources outside their own citizens,” explains Ukrainian human rights activist Volodymyr Yavorskyi of the Centre for Civil Liberties.
Another member of the so-called ‘security forces’ group is Maksym Serikov (Belarusian: Maksim Serykaŭ), a former traffic police inspector in Belarus.
Serikov also received a Russian passport and now complains that he cannot resign after the end of his contract. He also complains about discrimination: he serves as a sergeant, even though he received the rank of captain in Belarus.
Maksim Serikov / Photo: Cyberpartisans, OK.ru
“The situation is that when it’s convenient, I’m Belarusian, and they don’t give me a rank, and so on. But when it’s time to dismiss me, say, after the end of contact: ‘Well, you’re Russian, keep going until victory’… I am currently a sergeant and receive a sergeant’s salary,” says Serikov.
Oleksandr Matviienko (Belarusian: Alyaksandr Matsviienka) is a former serviceman of military unit 52 280. But he decided not to sit around in retirement in Belarus, but to go to war. Again. “I did Chechnia — the first and second. And now [Ukraine],” says Matvienko. His contract expired in December 2024. But, like Serikov, Matvienko has a Russian passport and continues to fight: they won’t let him leave.
Oleksandr Matvienko / Photo: Cyberpartisans, OK.ru
It is also difficult for Belarusians who only have a passport from one country to leave the service. Journalists spoke to mercenary Petro Zhabytskyi (Belarusian: Piotr Zhabicki). He said that he is a citizen of Belarus only and signed a one-year contract on 1 June 2024. But he has been unable to leave for three months due to bureaucratic red tape.
BELARUSIAN GENERAL STAFF GAINS EXPERIENCE
In the list of visitors to the Single Conscription Point, journalists found a person who particularly caught their attention. This was Yurii Kuzmin (Belarusian: Yury Kuzmin), deputy head of the Main Organisational and Mobilisation Directorate of the Belarusian General Staff.
Slidstvo.Info had no doubt that, unlike the others, Kuzmin was not going to volunteer for the front. To understand what the colonel, who was awarded by Oleksandr Lukashenko for exemplary service and who had been involved in drafting conscripts in Belarus for the last decade, was doing there in 2023, investigators called him. They used the same cover story as with the contract soldiers: the journalist introduced herself as an employee of the Moscow Draft Office on Yablochkova Street.
Yurii Kuzmin / Photo: Belta.by
“I myself am a high-ranking official, a military commander, between you and me. I just don’t mention my position. I was part of the delegation. Back then, it was probably two years ago, we were at this recruitment point, yes, at Yablochkova… We were there on an excursion, to familiarise ourselves. They showed us around, and we [Belarusians] learned from your [Russian] experience on the following issues: the procedure for concluding contracts and attracting foreign citizens,” says Kuzmin.
The man said that Belarus plans to create a similar Russian system for recruiting, in particular foreigners, on a contract basis through special points.
“We are planning to create this system ourselves, and we plan for it to be independent. We currently have a commander recruiting, you know, right? But we want it to be independent. This is the prospect. That is, we have seen this experience in your [Russian] system,” added Kuzmin.
BIC journalists calculated data from open sources: at the end of 2024, at least 44,100 contract soldiers served in Belarus (about 4,000 of them were women). In 2021, there were about 27,000 contract soldiers. The main increase in numbers — one and a half times — occurred in 2023 (40,500).
Oleksandr Lukashenko / Photo: RIA Novosti
Oleksandr Lukashenko ordered the creation of a contract army based on the experience of the Wagner Group.
“I want to keep these guys (Wagner PMC fighters, ed.) in our country’s armed forces. And, based on their experience, to more actively create a contract army,” he said two years ago, continuing to comment on the results of the rebellion led by the head of the Russian mercenaries.
BELARUSIANS — IN FOURTH PLACE
The military recruitment office in Moscow is not the only place from which Belarusians can end up in the Russian-Ukrainian war. Slidstvo.Info managed to talk to Belarusian Mykola Zhuravlov (Belarusian: Mikalai Zhurauleŭ). He signed a contract on 17 February 2025 in Tver, and at the end of April he was captured in the Kharkiv oblast.
“I worked in Belarus. Then, I went to work in Russia…I read that it was contract work. I am a patriot of two countries — Belarus and Russia,” says Zhuravlev.
ТарасMykola Zhuravlev (Belarusian: Mikalai Zhurauleŭ) / Photo: Taras Fedorenko
When asked what he thought about the protests in Belarus in 2020, the captive replied: “I didn’t watch it.” Zhuravlev speaks positively about Belarus as a state: “It’s normal. They live peacefully. They know that they can go outside and nothing will happen to them. We have a president like that in Belarus: he lives peacefully and doesn’t fight with anyone.”
Belarusians are in fourth place among Russian prisoners, after Uzbeks, Tajiks and Nepalese. This was reported to Slidstvo.Info by the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War.
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