Эмилий Лобейко. Фото^ Instagram
Belarusian volunteer Emiliy Labeika, who has been fighting on Ukraine’s side since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, could face deportation due to the lack of a passport. According to Radio Svaboda, the issue stems from a new procedure for legalising foreign military personnel that has been in effect since May 10, 2026.
Under the law, military personnel who began their service before that date and have not obtained a residence permit must submit documents to the migration service by November 10.
Labeika cannot meet this requirement. According to him, his Belarusian passport burned during shelling in Kramatorsk in May 2023. He cannot obtain a new document through the Belarusian embassy abroad, and considers returning to Belarus dangerous because he could face criminal prosecution for fighting on behalf of another country. He is wanted in Russia, and a sentence was handed down against him in the occupied part of Donetsk Region in the so-called “DPR”.
The 26-year-old volunteer currently serves in the Kraken 21st Unmanned Systems Regiment within the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ Third Army Corps. He previously served in the International Legion under Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence. Previously, he only needed a military ID to stay legally in Ukraine.
According to Labeika, the leadership of his current unit recently began collecting documents to submit to the migration service, but no legal procedure for processing documents without a passport has yet been found.
“What will happen next if I cannot submit an application? As far as I understand, there is currently no procedure that would allow me to submit the documents. It is unclear what they will do next,” Labeika said.
The volunteer hopes he will not be detained and forcibly deported, especially to Belarus, where he faces prison. However, he allows for the possibility that he may have to pack his belongings himself after November 10 and leave the country within a few days.
“I think no one will send me to Belarus… Besides, I am a very experienced fighter. Sending me there would mean putting me somewhere they would only mock what Ukraine has done… So I think they will give me a certain amount of time, and I will simply have to leave,” he said.
If he has to leave Ukraine, he intends to go to Poland.
In August, Labeika appealed to a temporary investigative commission of Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada dealing with human rights, asking it to help resolve his documentation problems. According to him, after the appeal, he began receiving responses from various agencies, including the Security Service of Ukraine, the Anti-Corruption Bureau, the prosecutor’s office and the police.
Essentially, the responses state that an exception cannot be made for Labeika’s situation and that documents cannot be issued to him without a passport, or that the agency found no violations when previously reviewing the Belarusian volunteer’s case.
“I am currently in some kind of legal limbo where I cannot do anything,” the volunteer said.
Emiliy Labeika is 26. He went to fight in Ukraine at the age of 21. Originally from Babruysk, he adopted the call sign “Bobr”. He took part in the 2020 protests in Babruysk and Minsk. He dropped out of a distance-learning programme at the Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics. In July 2021, he left Belarus for Poland, where he worked at McDonald’s.
He says his parents did not support his decisions, either to leave Belarus or to go to war. He is no longer in contact with them. His former wife and two children also remain in Belarus. He is not in contact with them either.