"Unacceptable" friendship: how Ukraine reacted to the transfer of Russian detained in Belarus to the Russian Federation

The President of Ukraine called the decision of the Belarusian authorities to hand over 32 Russians detained earlier by Minsk to Russia “unfair”. He wrote about this on Facebook.

“We consider this decision, to put it mildly, unfair, one that does not correspond to the spirit of relations between Ukraine and Belarus, based on the principles of respect and mutual assistance,” wrote Volodymyr Zelenskyy. "In my opinion, this is strange, incorrect and definitely unacceptable in friendly interstate relations."

According to him, all Kiev's requests for extradition and attempts to convince Minsk of the guilt of these persons for crimes on the territory of Ukraine had no effect.

“The office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine appealed to the General Prosecutor's Office of Belarus to extradite the detainees to Ukraine. All these persons, including 9 Ukrainian citizens, were reasonably served with a notification of suspicion of participation in a terrorist organization (part 1 of article 258-3 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). The Belarusian side left the appeal unanswered. There were also active attempts through diplomatic and personal channels to prove to our partners why it would be right and correct to go exactly the way we proposed. But, unfortunately, this did not happen, "Zelensky said.

The President of Ukraine predicted grave "consequences" of the decision adopted by Minsk.

• Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksiy Danilov (left) and President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy (right)
• AFP
• © GENYA SAVILOV

“The consequences of this decision will be tragic. We understand that the "Wagnerites" will still return to their usual occupation - the spread of war. God grant that the Belarusian authorities do not have to get another burning, bloodless Donbass on their territory, which all these Wagnerites are very good at creating, ”Zelensky said.

In turn, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksiy Danilov predicted that such a decision in Minsk would negatively affect bilateral relations.

“Unfortunately, the Belarusian authorities made a non-legal decision that does not correspond to the spirit of bilateral relations, and is an unfriendly step towards Ukraine,” he wrote on Facebook.

Failed provocation

On August 14, the Prosecutor General's Office of Russia reported that the Belarusian authorities handed over 32 Russian citizens to the Russian side. Another detainee turned out to be a citizen of Belarus, he remained in the republic.

Let us remind you that the Russians were detained at the end of July. The Belarusian media then reported that they were allegedly employees of Wagner's foreign private military company. At the same time, it was argued that this was only a part of the fighters who arrived on the territory of the republic. The goal of these people, according to the Belarusian officials, was "to destabilize the situation during the election campaign." 

A criminal case was opened against them for the preparation of mass riots. In addition, Minsk handed over to Kiev a list of detainees for verification for their participation in hostilities in Donbass and their Ukrainian citizenship.

It was also reported that telephone talks between Alyaksandr Lukashenka and Volodymyr Zelensky took place on this matter.

• Detention of Russians in Belarus
• © Screenshot from video: RUPTLY

On August 12, the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine sent a request to the Belarusian side to extradite 28 of the 33 detainees to Kiev. Some of these people are considered by Kiev to be citizens of Ukraine. 

“All 28 persons, including 9 citizens of Ukraine, were informed of suspicion of participation in a terrorist organization (part 1 of article 258-3 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). The Shevchenko District Court of Kiev selected the suspects as preventive measures in the form of detention, ”the press service of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General said at the time.

According to Kiev, the detainees allegedly "took an active part in hostilities in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions as part of the terrorist organizations" LPR "and" DPR ".

In turn, the press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov said that the Russians followed in transit through the territory of Belarus and did not commit any illegal actions. He also noted that Moscow does not recognize any of the detainees as citizens of Ukraine and considers them to be citizens of Russia.

On August 6, the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda published an investigation based on information from the Russian special services. It stated that the detention of Russians in Belarus was the result of a provocation organized by the Security Service of Ukraine.

The article described in detail how, with the help of dummies and fabricated documents, Ukrainians hired Russians, allegedly to guard objects in Venezuela. At the same time, tickets to Istanbul, from where the fighters were supposed to fly to Havana, and then to Caracas, were bought on the territory of Ukraine.

On August 9, Lukashenko announced that he had received a letter from Russian President Vladimir Putin with information about the Russians detained in the republic.

“It was clearly stated by the President of Russia:“ We will build fraternal relations with you. And what is happening, Alexander Grigorievich, let's figure it out in detail. I will send you the information that we have to date. " The next day I received a letter from the President of the Russian Federation, in my opinion, five pages. With a statement of all the facts, ”Lukashenka said.

On August 12, Interfax reported that the Russians could be returned to Russia “by the end of the week,” that is, until August 16. Two days later, it became known that they were indeed transferred to Russia.

During a telephone conversation between Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko on August 15, the parties positively assessed the interaction on the issue of the detention of 32 Russians.

"In the style of the SBU"

According to Deputy Director of the Institute of CIS Countries Vladimir Zharikhin, the decision of Alexander Lukashenko for Vladimir Zelensky was "an unpleasant surprise."

“He was sure that Lukashenka would hand over the detainees to him. However, he cannot have real claims against Belarus, because 32 Russian citizens were detained in Belarus, who cannot be extradited to a third party, "the expert said in an interview with RT.

At the same time, from his point of view, if the detainees were transferred to Ukraine, their rights would be seriously violated.

“In Ukraine, they would be kept in prison, subjected to torture and humiliation, and then they would try to exchange them for real Ukrainian saboteurs, who are constantly caught in the DPR and LPR,” Zharikhin suggested.

In turn, RANEPA teacher Sergei Margulis noted that Kiev probably wanted to arrange a show trial against the Russians, which would be widely covered in the media.

“It is obvious that a trial would have taken place over them. But we must understand that in the current conditions there can be no talk of any fair and transparent trial. They would have been sentenced to very specific terms and, possibly, would have been included in the lists of citizens being exchanged with Donbass, ”Margulis predicted in an interview with RT.

According to a RT source in the Ukrainian President's Office, Kiev was going to use this story, including in negotiations with Western leaders.

“This would be a good argument for Zelensky to once again seek help from Western partners. I think Lukashenko understood this very well and did not want to provide assistance to the Ukrainian authorities. It is at least unprofitable for him, ”said the interlocutor of RT.

• President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko
• Reuters
• © Andrei Stasevich / BelTA

The RT source in the Batkivshchyna party adheres to a similar point of view.

“Public demands to transfer citizens of another country to Ukraine look strange. And it would be naive to hope that Lukashenka will fulfill these requirements, ”the deputy says.

According to analysts, from a legal point of view, the decision to transfer Russian citizens to Moscow looks absolutely justified.

“Lukashenka made a choice in favor of extradition to Russia, because these are Russian citizens,” Zharikhin said.

He also stressed that the version with the provocation of the SBU looks quite reliable.

“It looks like the truth, since the material of“ KP ”cited not just unfounded statements, but facts, documents, video recordings. Such provocations are in the style of the Ukrainian security service, so we can expect similar actions on their part in the future, ”Zharikhin said.

At the same time, experts believe that the story of the refusal to hand over the detained citizens of the Russian Federation to Kiev, despite the statements of the head of the National Security and Defense Council, is unlikely to affect relations between Ukraine and Belarus.

“Belarus is extremely important for Ukraine as an economic partner, including supplying energy there. Kiev, obviously, will not sacrifice it in such a situation. I do not think that the situation will go beyond diplomatic reproaches, ”concluded Sergei Margulis.