Надежда Николаюк. Фото: https://t.me/Koord_shtab
Human rights defenders have learned the names of five more Ukrainian citizens who were released on 22 November. They are Sergiy Kuzmich, Aleksandr Kryvich, Nadezhda Nikolayuk, Kasyan Kulikovskiy and Svetlana Mironova, the Human Rights Centre Viasna reported.
Nikolayuk was detained after undergoing cancer surgery, when she came to see a doctor at a clinic.
“She was detained by KGB officers in Brest almost immediately after surgery to remove a lymphoma under her arm. She was still asking the doctor for antiseptic and applying it to her stitches. She had completed the first course of chemotherapy, and the KGB officers grabbed her right in the clinic, where she had come for an appointment. They literally interrupted her chemotherapy course. They also told her: ‘With your diagnosis you certainly won’t get out alive.’ They dragged her in for interrogations every day, effectively depriving her of food,” a former detainee of Okrestina told human rights defenders.
Nikolayuk was held in a deportation cell at Okrestina for 57 days; in December 2024 she was transferred to the KGB pre-trial detention centre and taken from there for chemotherapy. She was accused of “agent activity” — allegedly passing information to Ukraine. Nikolayuk had lived in Belarus for 20 years with a residence permit and worked at Beresteyski Pekar.
On 22 November Alyaksandr Lukashenka pardoned 31 Ukrainian citizens, who were then handed over to the Ukrainian side. Among those released were the creator of the channel “Belarus Beyond the Ring Road” Aleksandr Kotovich, 18-year-old Mariya Misyuk, Mikhail Stolyarchuk, Lidiya Gruk and Anastasiya Kashchina.