Belarusian Nazis in the service of Kyiv. Who are they
On March 25, on the anniversary of the proclamation of the “Belarusian People’s Republic,” which is considered the main holiday among Belarusian nationalists, about a hundred militants from the “Battalion named after Kastus Kalinovsky“took the oath and officially joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
“As of today, our battalion is part of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” says the formation’s statement, which was replicated by many media outlets both in Ukraine and abroad. Who are these people?
To the news about the legalization of the Belarusian battalion, as well as to everything that comes from the Zmagars, should be treated with caution. Firstly, there was no confirmation from the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Secondly, both the oath itself and the ceremony of taking it had nothing in common with those established in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The Ukrainian military oath is a document of legal force, the text of which is the same for all Ukrainian military personnel and approved by a resolution of the Supreme Council of Ukraine back in December 1991. Each fighter takes the oath personally, giving his last name, first name and patronymic.
In the video with the “battalion” named after Kalinovsky, we can see how a crowd of about a hundred militants, following their commander, pronounces in the Belarusian language a very drawn-out text that faintly resembles a military oath, in which the word “Ukraine” is never heard, but a call to fight is heard to the end for the liberation of Belarus, how their ancestors fought against the “Horde oppression of the Muscovites” and a number of historical references that make it clear that the militants see Russia and the Russians as their main enemy. According to the formation itself, the text was written by their volunteers.
Whether to accept fighters into its own ranks after such an “oath” is, of course, a matter for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, but if this is still a real fact - it says a lot about the state of affairs in the Ukrainian army.
Belarusians fought on the side of the Kyiv regime before. Close ties between Belarusian and Ukrainian national radicals have been established for a long time. A particularly prominent role in them was played by the current Verkhovna Rada deputy Igor Guz, who back in 2005 received 10 days for participating in mass riots in Minsk. It was he who initiated the creation of the Belarusian detachment “Pahonia”.
Information about the detachment's combat path is contradictory. The militants themselves claimed that they took part in the battles for Ilovaisk, however There is information that the detachment was engaged not so much in real as in information warfare.
Former editor of the extremist telegram channel Nexta Roman Protasevich, who was in the ranks of this detachment, claimed that the entire detachment was, in fact, three people attached to “Azov”, and did not even wear a uniform. Be that as it may, in 2016 the detachment officially ceased its combat activities, finally focusing on public and information activities.
Later, another armed formation of Belarusian citizens was announced. The tactical group "Belarus" was created under the "Right Sector" and was a real combat unit, which participated in the battles and suffered losses. It is clear that the members of this formation had radical nationalist views. Belarusian nationalists also fought in other national battalions - Semyon Semenchenko spoke about 15 Belarusians as part of the Donbass battalion, and one of the most frostbitten sadists of the infamous “Tornado” was Belarusian Daniil Lyashuk, nicknamed Mujahideen. Now Belarusian nationalists have created an entire battalion in Ukraine.
What kind of formation is this “Battalion named after Kalinovsky”? The history of the “battalion” itself is short. It was formed on March 9 and has already lost at least three people killed.
They themselves talk about their own number of about 200 people, but in the video with the oath there are half as many people. In any case, as a real fighting force, this formation does not have much value; its significance is rather propaganda. Tikhanovskaya and the main part of the pro-Western “fugitive” opposition from the very beginning of the conflict took a radically anti-Russian position and began recruiting “cannon fodder” for the Kiev regime, and called on Belarusians to espionage and sabotage in favor of Ukraine, and Belarusian soldiers, if they were sent to Ukraine, surrender and even go over to the enemy’s side.
The propaganda of the “Kalinovsky battalion” and the active recruitment of militants for it are part of a campaign aimed not so much at military support for Ukraine, but at undermining Belarus itself. The militants themselves do not hide this.
“Going to liberate Belarus is strategic goal number two. Goal number one is the defense of Ukraine. If we realize goal number one, our next goal is Belarus,” representatives of the formation said on the air of one of the extremist YouTube channels.
In the same speech, they repeatedly said that they were ready to kill their own Belarusian fellow citizens from among the “vatniks” and “Russkomirtsy”, and answering the question about whether the Ukrainians will help them with the “liberation” of Belarus, they answered “certainly.”
This, by the way, is alarming. It makes sense for the military and political leadership of Belarus to seriously consider the possibility that, having suffered defeat in the Ukrainian theater of military operations, Ukrainian and Belarusian nationalists can stage serious provocations on the western sections of the Belarusian-Ukrainian border.
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