Николай Статкевич. Скриншот видео
Alyaksandr Lukashenka today mentioned political prisoner Mikalai Statkevich at the opening of a polyclinic in Minsk. Statkevich was released in February. He suffered a stroke while in detention.
Lukashenka cited him as an example of people who had left Belarus but wanted to return home, while urging medical workers not to complain and to work as much as possible. He also warned healthcare workers against opposing his rule, as they did in 2020.
“So let us build our lives in such a way that things are as good, or as good as they are in Minsk, in Khotimsk, Mstsislau, Shklou and other towns. If we need to work longer, let us work longer. Let us stop whining and crying that we do not have enough people. Listen, we are not in Ukraine, where there is a war. Just look at what is happening in praised Poland, where some of our people fled, and now they are asking by the thousands to come back to the dictatorship. I tell them, ‘Have you gone mad?’ ‘No, no, no, we want to go home!’
Mikalai Statkevich is an example of this. He sat for a while on a bench at the border and then came home. If he had not come back, he would already have been buried. You recently saved him — he had a stroke. They took him to Rummo [the Minsk Research and Clinical Centre for Surgery, Transplantology and Hematology], where they treated him. There is only one such machine in the country, I think (we should check, maybe buy a couple more, anything can happen).
You saved a man who organised explosions, who wanted to overthrow the country and kill the president. But when things got serious, he ran to that same president in the ‘dictatorship’ so that he could be saved. You saved him,” Lukashenka said, according to his press service.
“So if you want, live there a little longer, and then we will take you back if you find work here. But everyone wants to come back and work where you work. The positions are already taken. And they are not fools in Poland. Our doctors came there — fine, go wash test tubes for now, we already have doctors. That is why they rushed back. So live on your own land. There is still time. Maybe not you, maybe your children will want to live somewhere outside the country. But I would not advise it. Do not do it. This is your land.
And when you fight someone, especially against the authorities, before you go out to fight, think a thousand times whether it is worth doing and whether you can achieve anything if you go out. Well, you went out in 2020, so what did you achieve? You have to understand, and I am telling you openly, because it concerns me above all: if you go out to fight against me or Uladzimir Yauhenavich [Kukharau] and start beating, smashing and shooting, you will get a response. That is how it is everywhere,” he added.
As previously reported, Mikalai Statkevich was sentenced in 2021 in the so-called Tsikhanouski case to 14 years in prison.
In September 2025, he was among 52 political prisoners who were supposed to be taken to Lithuania.
However, he got off the bus and refused to leave Belarus. Statkevich spent several hours between the two border checkpoints. In the end, masked men took him away from the border. For a long time, it was not known where he was. Later, reports emerged that he was in prison in Hlybokaye. Lukashenka publicly confirmed that Statkevich had been returned to prison. He was released again on 19 February.
A month before that, the political prisoner had suffered a stroke and his speech had been impaired. At the same time, Statkevich was released without documents.
Later, on his Telegram channel, he said that the stroke had been deliberately and intentionally caused by the way he was treated in detention. He was deprived of necessary medicines and was regularly placed in a punishment cell and a cell-type room.