Euroradio has issued a statement in support of its editor-in-chief, Yauhen Kazartsau. The editorial team says Kazartsau has been subjected to harassment. Based on false information, he was added to the database of the Ukrainian project Myrotvorets. His profile was later removed from the website.
We are publishing Euroradio’s statement in full.
“European Radio for Belarus opposes the harassment of our editor-in-chief, Yauhen Kazartsau. Individuals acting in bad faith are manipulating facts and spreading disinformation in an attempt to discredit Kazartsau and Euroradio, making the work of our media outlet more difficult despite its pro-democratic, pro-Belarusian and pro-Ukrainian stance in the context of regional security. At the same time, our staff members — like many Belarusians in exile — are under pressure from the Belarusian security services.
In 2025, we did not disclose the identity of Euroradio’s new editor-in-chief for security reasons. Under conditions of repression, this is standard practice: you also do not know the identities of the editors-in-chief of a number of other major Belarusian media outlets. However, Kazartsau was de-anonymised by people who consider themselves democratic activists.
They spread their speculation wherever they can. Their fabrications about Yauhen Kazartsau became the basis for a publication about him on the Myrotvorets website. However, it quickly became clear there that the “information” they had been given did not withstand even basic verification.
As a result, the page about Kazartsau was removed from the Myrotvorets website. It is now unavailable. We are grateful to the Ukrainian journalists for correcting the mistake.
European Radio for Belarus was founded 20 years ago. During that time, we have gone through searches and detentions, bans, website blocking, all kinds of accusations of being “bought” (there is hardly anyone we have not allegedly been “sold” to), and waves of hate. But in every situation, the editorial team has stood by its staff members when they came under attack.
We maintain that by hiring Yauhen Kazartsau as a correspondent in 2020, we did not make a mistake. At that time, under the impact of the falsified election, mass protests and the violence with which the Belarusian authorities cracked down on their opponents, many journalists moved from state propaganda outlets to independent, pro-democratic media. We knew about his work at Sputnik Belarus — he did not hide it. But we decided that here and now he would be useful on our side. It was a conscious decision.
And it was the right one. Today, under Yauhen Kazartsau’s leadership, European Radio for Belarus continues to provide Belarusians with truthful, objective information that, we believe, brings democratic change in our country closer. It is difficult daily work that the Lukashenka regime strongly dislikes. The fact that there are people who — because of conspiracy theories, their own mistaken views or at someone’s instruction — seek to obstruct our work only demonstrates its effectiveness.
Zmitser Novikau,
Chairman of the Board of European Radio for Belarus
Pavel Sviardlou,
Editor-in-Chief of European Radio for Belarus from April 2018 to April 2025
Maryia Kalesnikava,
Editor at European Radio for Belarus
Zmitser Lukashuk,
Editor at European Radio for Belarus
On behalf of the entire Euroradio editorial team.
