Ukrainian citizen Mykhailo Stoliarchuk, who was released from a Belarusian penal colony in November 2025, told the Viasna Human Rights Centre how political prisoner Vadzim Khrasko died.
Stoliarchuk, a scheduled bus driver from Kovel, was detained in February 2022, two days before the start of the war. He was accused of agent activity because of a dashcam installed in the bus by the transport company. Stoliarchuk was sentenced to six years in a penal colony. He spent nearly half of his sentence in the Brest pre-trial detention centre and a colony in the Vitsyebsk region.
While in the colony, Stoliarchuk witnessed the death of political prisoner Vadzim Khrasko in January 2024.
“He already had health problems. In January 2024, he had a fever and went to the medical unit, but they would not see him there. Then he became so unwell that he collapsed in the barracks. The staff themselves got scared. They called a supervisor and a medical worker. He was carried on a stretcher to the medical unit, where he died immediately. An ambulance arrived and took him away. As the supervisors later said, ‘he burned out in three days’ — he died from inflammation, as the autopsy showed. If the medical unit had taken an X-ray and somehow helped him, this would not have happened,” Stoliarchuk said.
In August 2023, Khrasko was sentenced to three years in a penal colony for donations under an article on financing “extremist” activity. He was sent to serve his sentence in a colony in the Vitsyebsk region despite having a number of illnesses.
The 50-year-old Khrasko died on the night of January 8–9, 2024. The official cause of death was pneumonia.