“Words of truth coming from our colleagues and friends were seen by authorities as an extremely grave threat to them”

On April 19, 2022, many Belarusian independent unions’ leaders and activists were arrested. The date became a milestone in the history of the massive repressions in the country. We share with you why the regime fears union activists more than it may seem.

Currently, 20 union leaders and activists still linger in Belarusian prisons, including Vatslau Areshka, Volha Brytsikava, and Aliaksandr Kapshul. Their colleagues have told Salidarnast what kind of people these unionists are and why the regime fights them in such an inhumane manner.

Vatslau Areshka

Formerly, a member of the Radio and Electronics Workers’ Union (REP), he engaged in journalism, enlightenment and education activities, and was a man of letters. He was detained on April 19, 2022, convicted under three articles of the Criminal Code, and sentenced to 8 years in a high security prison.

Aliaksandr Yarashuk, President of the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions and himself a former political prisoner, says that Vatslau Areshka was already a well-known figure in the democratic forces in Belarus as far back as the late 1980s-early 1990s.

“An overwhelming desire to make a contribution to the process of national rebirth brought a very young Vatslau to the ranks of the Belarusian People’s Front. As an intellectual and a person of formidable educational background, he was very enthusiastic to work for the benefit of his country which regained its independence in the early 1990s.

“During that memorable period which planted big expectations and hopes in people’s hearts, Vatskau was making his contribution through doing good things. And since the specific feature of the Belarusian independent trade union movement was that it grew riding the wave of the national renaissance of which it was an integral part, it is not surprising that, in his time, Vatslau Areshka came to find his rightful place among us. He was the REP Union’s Information and Communications Officer, and his union’s activists and members of other BKDP affiliates highly appreciated his immense professionalism”.

The ruling regime viewed Vatslau’s activity as highly, although in the opposite sense, having him convicted and sentenced to 8 (!) years in prison at the end of 2022. Obviously, the authorities saw an extremely grave threat to themselves in the words of truth about the actual situation in the country coming from our colleague and friend.

Probably, few other prisoners had to go through so much suffering and grief as have befallen Vatslau. He experienced a true tragedy; he lost his sight behind bars. And despite that, despite the fact that hundreds of political prisoners were released during the previous year, our comrade remains in the regime’s dungeons, carrying his martyr’s cross.

We never stop demanding that the regime should immediately release Vatslau. And the voice of the independent trade union movement of Belarus is joined by the voices of the International Labour Organization, the International Trade Union Confederation, the IndustriAll Global Union and other international trade union associations – hundreds of millions of union members from all parts of the world. We hope and believe that our struggle and the solidarity support from our friends all over the world will bring Vatslav his greatly desired freedom that he has suffered so much for, will pluck him from the darkness, the hell on earth where he currently resides.

Volha Brytsikava

The former Head of the workplace union at the Naftan oil refinery affiliated to the Belarusian Independent Union. She was detained in August 2023, sentenced to three years in prison, and put on the list of persons “implicated in extremist activities”. In August 2024 Volha was tried under a number of other articles and received three more years of penal colony; later on, the term of the second sentence was reduced by one year. In January 2025, the KGB put Brytsikava on the “list of terrorists”.

The BKDP Vice-President Maksim Pazniakou believes that all charges against Volha are completely groundless.

“After 2020, she was the leader of the Belarusian Independent Union’s affiliate at the Naftan oil refinery and she worked in absolute compliance with the law and the effective collective bargaining agreement, trying to protect the workers’ rights.

“And there were no calls for any “extremist” or law-breaking actions or the use of force.

“Volha is a person with a particularly keen sense of justice. She has always believed, and still does, that workers’ rights can and should be protected. Unfortunately, many laws in today’s Belarus violate these rights and people find themselves behind bars.

“So, Volha could not turn a blind eye on what was going on around her. She saw the attitude of the management and representatives of the pro-government Trade Union Federation, she saw how people were misled, intimidated, put under pressure, how the authorities were making them unable to fight for their legal rights.

That is why Volha came to show people the way and evolved as a union leader. And a great lot of people followed her.

“I’m sure that even behind bars she remains very strong, despite the fact that she lost her mother in 2025 and Volha was not allowed to see her before she died.

“As far as I know, she has no other close relatives left in Belarus, which means that she does not receive any letters or parcels that could support and sustain her. We are so worried for her and we do our best to make sure that Volha is released.”

Aliaksandr Kapshul

The former legal consultant at the "Polymire" plant within the "Naftan" oil refinery structure. He was convicted under three articles of the Criminal Code and sentenced to 15 years in a high-security prison.

Siarhei Antusevich, the BKDP Vice-President and a former political prisoner, tells us that when protests began in the country in 2020, Aliaksandr came to join the Independent Union and started defending workers.

“And I remember that for many of them it meant a lot because people needed all sorts of assistance from drafting applications to representation in court.

“It was then that I met Aliaksandr, a professional and a radiant man with a broad smile on his face. When he was detained and became a defendant in a criminal case we all, of course, were greatly concerned about him. By that time, I and some of my colleagues had already been arrested and were at the pre-trial detention facility or in a penal colony and we heard from many people about Kapshul and how he continued his work and helped people in that situation.

“Later, when I was in the Mahiliou colony I saw Aliaksandr there. He looked different, of course, from the man I knew before the arrest; he had lost a lot of weight and he looked haggard. After some time, I had a chance to talk to him and I could see that Aliaksandr had lost absolutely none of his spirit and remained as staunch as ever. They had failed to break him. He looked like a man who clearly saw why he was walking that path himself and why we all walked it.

“And another thing: when I was in the colony I did not have to try to find out where Aliaksandr was and what was happening to him because I heard about him from other inmates all the time. Even there, in the colony, he continued helping them prepare legal documents, doing that mostly for political prisoners. Although it was quite dangerous – all knew about it but all showed proper understanding. He was constantly asked to help and this speaks of his high professionalism.

“I am sure that we shall soon see Aliaksandr regain his freedom. In any case, we as the BKDP representatives have and will be doing all we can to make this happen.”

Victoria Leontieva

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