My name is Tsupriyanchik Pavel and I am 19. Already in 2019, I began to participate in youth initiatives that arose after the “law on deferments” adopted at the same time. I continued my activities with acquaintances in 2020, before the presidential election. On August 6, as a juvenile, I was arrested for the first time and convicted under Articles 21.14 and 23.34 for distributing leaflets.
I continued my protest activities while studying in Minsk. On March 25th , 2021, going out to protest on Independence Avenue in Minsk, I was arrested for the second time and sentenced to 30 days under Articles 24.23 and 24.3. At the beginning of October 2021 I had my bank accounts seized for not paying the “outskirts” of the day. It was then that I began to suspect that “in the year of great revenge” they might come for me soon.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine was a huge shock for me, as it was for many civilized people. I have outlined for myself that my minimum I can do to help the Ukrainian people is to pass on information about any Russian military activity in Baranovichi in a competent and holistic manner. I regularly walked near military facilities, monitored military activity near the airfield and on the railroad tracks, structured what I saw and transmitted it to the “Belarusky Gayun” bot.
On March 22, 2022, the KGB contacted me under the cover of the military enlistment office. After a series of interrogations, on March 22, I was taken to the TDF, where interrogations continued for several more days. When I was released from those days, I learned about a series of searches in my home and village, in the homes of my relatives and friends, about the interrogation by the KGB and the GOVD, and even about the repeated interrogations of my recent cellmates about me. It became clear that it was not safe for me to stay in the country, and I began preparing to move. I did not consider an emergency relocation and underestimated the level of danger, and I hoped to move to Poland within a month or two, but all my plans were ruined by a phone call in the morning from the police department, asking me to come and talk to them. They refused to tell the details of the phone call, so with the help of volunteers I had to urgently leave the country with only $70 and a briefcase with a few things on my shoulders because of the imminent threat. At the moment I am completely safe in Georgia, but I need your financial help to get back on my feet here and continue my journey.
How much is needed?
1350€ — buying clothes and food; funds needed to collect documents; airfare to move to Poland; costs for the time of mastering in Poland.