Spotlight: Belarus and Ukraine

The conscription into the army is conducted twice a year: in spring and in autumn. Every year about 10 thousand young men are called up to compulsory military service in Belarus. Almost every year we get news about suicides, suicide attempts and extra-judicial executions in the Belarusian army. In August 2020, he took an active part in protests against falsified presidential elections in Belarus. On 10 August he was wounded by a rubber bullet in Pushkin Square in Minsk – he has had a scar on his side ever since. However, he then managed to evade the Belarusian security forces. Through cadet school into protests: Denis’s story. You'll find these and other news and stories from the week in our new episode.

Our aim is to steal the army from lukashenka and to block his every attempt to send the Belarusian army to help putin in Ukraine. The campaign “NO Means NO!” is telling the old dictator that the Belarusians will do everything to make lukashenka go to the war and fight alone, if he wants that so much! The more so, as he learned how to touch an assault rifle without any ammunition in August, 2020. Ministry of Defense of Belarus wants to purchase body bags for Belarusian dead soldiers at the price 10 times exceeding their real cost. The cynicism of the Belarusian Ministry of Defense, trying to make profit even from body bags for the corpses of Belarusian soldiers, is astonishing. And more another updates that you can find in this episode.

The only option to avoid becoming a weapon in the hands of the regime is to leave Belarus. Our common task is to make sure that young guys and men of conscription age know and understand that they will be supported if they take that decision and will be helped to adapt in a foreign country and to solve all current problems they encounter. And more another updates that you can find in this episode.

To keep a man with stage four cancer behind bars without providing him with full medical care is torture and a violation of human rights. Unfortunately, Pavel is not alone – most prisoners in Belarus are not provided with medical care. There are simply no chances to get the necessary examination or medications. lukashenko is killing people this way – and it has been going on for almost two years. Is Belarus preparing for war? The defense ministry has started peacetime to wartime transition training. And more another updates that you can find in this episode. On July 1, the political prisoner Aliaksei Ivanisau will turn 54 – you can support him with letters and postcards: pre-trial detention facility No. 1, Volodarsky Street, 2, 220030, Minsk.

Belarusian officials are vying with one another on the regime’s media talking about their concern for children, opening children’s hospitals and clinics as a showcase for their work. However, they are silent about the most significant thing – children in prisons, illegally detained, children announced to be in socially dangerous situations and taken to children’s homes, and, finally, child political prisoners, who are not mentioned at all; for the illegitimate regime they just do not exist.

It has been three weeks already since the start of Ukraine’s battle against the troops putin. russia has lost over 13,000 soldiers during this time and many tonnes of military equipment. Over three million people have become refugees. “Our House” joined the fight to help Ukrainians from day one... It’s Spotlight – podcast about news from Belarus and Ukraine. Vera Horton is on the microphone. Every update is about work of “Our House”. It is Belarusian public human rights organization. Goal of Our House is the “democratic transformation of the Belarusian authorities in a non-violent manner”. Our House have been working in Belarus since December 2005.