Ukrainian crisis: the concern of Belarusian exiles in Chernihiv
Audio 01:18
A view of the city of Chernihiv in Ukraine in 2019 (Illustrative image).
© Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0 Star61
Text by: RFI Follow
3 mins
The situation remains tense on the borders of Ukraine, where Russia has massed its troops.
The Russian and Belarusian armed forces are conducting joint exercises until Sunday, February 20.
In Chernihiv, the first major city on the road from Russia and Belarus, an NGO is offering a roof to Belarusians who have had to flee the regime, while waiting to find a safe place of exile.
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With our special correspondents in Chernihiv,
Anastasia Becchio and Boris Vichith
A large two-storey pavilion, surrounded by a high wooden fence, at the exit from Chernihiv.
It is here that Tatiana and her children aged 9 and 11 found refuge on February 4th.
The young woman fled Belarus, a month after her husband, who suffered repression for reposting a message on social networks in 2019. Despite the very calm and family atmosphere that reigns inside the "
Maison des droits de l'homme
", the Russian military pressure and the maneuvers some 150 km further north, worry him.
"
I don't really feel safe here,
" says Tatiana.
And if a bomb exploded in the neighboring field
,
what would happen
to us ?
We find ourselves again in a complicated situation.
Here you feel more free, but it's scary that Russia is behaving so badly and Lukashenko is helping her.
»
To avoid the risk of ending up in prison, for having distributed financial aid to detainees and for having fought, for years, for the simple respect of her social rights, Maria Tarassenko fled through the forest, alone, a October night, her town of Gomel, 70 km away, leaving her husband and mother-in-law ill.
In Ukraine, she found freedom, but not peace of mind.
"
You fled the dictatorship, political persecution and you fall back into a dangerous situation, where you can find yourself in the middle of a war,
" says Maria Tarassenko.
I am ashamed that my Belarus is taking part in these Putin games of imperial grandeur
”
Like all the temporary residents of the House of Human Rights in Tchernihiv, Maria hopes to see the pressure at the border ease after the end of the Russian-Belarusian maneuvers on Sunday.
"Barbarism of the 21st century"
Igor, a refugee in Lviv, in western Ukraine, passing through Chernihiv to attend first aid courses, was at the head of an NGO in Brest, in Belarus.
His organization has more than once criticized local authorities for public transport or environmental problems.
To avoid jail, he had to leave everything behind and flee.
Although he lives in western Ukraine, a region that could be spared in the event of an attack, "
the intimidation operation that Russia is carrying out against its neighbor
" angers him.
“
The military maneuvers could have taken place in other areas.
We understand that all of this is done on purpose
,” he says.
Igor, who continues his militant activity from abroad, describes as “
barbarism of the 21st century
” the fact that a country equipped with atomic weapons “
directly threatens its neighbor and dictates its will to it.
Ukraine does not dictate to Putin whether he should be friends with China or not
!
»
►
To read also: The imminent Russian invasion, according to Washington, despite Moscow's denials
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