Former fighter of the Volat Battalion of the Kastuś Kalinoŭski Regiment, Aliaksandr Navkovich, known by the call sign “Lakhvich,” has presented his version of events a month and a half after the publication of a video in which he appeared to express “repentance.” On his YouTube channel, he published a video titled *When Your Own People Are Worse Than the Occupier*.
About six weeks ago, a video appeared on Aliaksandr Navkovich’s social media accounts showing him with his head, moustache, and beard completely shaved. In the recording, he referred to himself as a “pig herder” and apologized for his previous remarks.
According to Navkovich, the video, which many believed had been recorded under duress, was in fact made after threats and physical violence by Belarusian volunteers.
He said that on May 31, he was lured to an apartment in Izium through a woman he had been communicating with for about a month and a half.
“I arrived, and she sent me the address, saying, ‘Come in.’ While I was looking around trying to find the place, she came out to meet me herself. Very refined. We greeted each other with the ‘Roman salute,’ so she was Belarusian-speaking and committed to the cause. I thought, great.”
According to him, the woman insisted they go inside, where she asked him to take a shower.
“Go take a shower quickly. I like clean men,” he quoted her as saying.
After he entered the shower, five men allegedly appeared in the apartment and gave him an ultimatum: either he would shave his hair, beard, and moustache and record a “repentance” video, or he would be subjected to sexual violence.
“In short, they lured me to the apartment through this woman. She asked me to get in the shower, and I was naked. Two guys came in filming me on their phones, while three others were in the apartment. Five people were pressuring me. They told me: either we rape you, or you shave your head. And these are Belarusian volunteers. I’ll name two people for now—the others don’t matter yet. They are ‘Gena’ — Radzivon Batulin, and ‘Vaukalak’ — Dzianis Urbanovich,” Lakhvich said.
“There wasn’t much of a choice. I’m not an idiot. That’s why I look like this now,” he added, stressing that the video had been recorded under pressure.
According to Navkovich, the conflict began after he publicly supported Belarusian volunteer Aliaksandr Krasouski, known by the call sign “Zherar,” who is under investigation in Ukraine on charges related to the unauthorized abandonment of a military unit and the illegal handling of weapons and ammunition. He said that afterward he became the target of online abuse from Dzianis Urbanovich, who accused him of discrediting Belarusian volunteers. He also described social media disputes with Radzivon Batulin, which he said preceded the incident and the recording of the controversial video.
Lakhvich said he intends to seek an investigation into the incident through the Ukrainian courts and European human rights organizations.
