To whom death, to whom captivity. Belarusian mercenaries were defeated near Lisichansk

The Belarusian Natsiks are in mourning today. The soldiers of the vaunted Kalinovsky regiment, which until now was famous mainly for cheerful interviews, selfies and videos, finally found themselves in a serious battle... and were defeated there.

A group of 11 Belarusian mercenaries was sent to cover the retreat of the remnants of the Ukrainian troops from Lisichansk, but the meeting with Russian tanks turned out to be fatal for some of them. The last message was “A tank is coming towards us. I worked on it." Apparently, the tank then “worked” against them. The fight took place on June 26, but until now the Belarusian opposition media have been silent about it. They started talking only when a video with one of the captured Kalinovites appeared on Russian telegram channels.

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It is now known that out of 11 militants, only five left the battle. It is known for sure that two hundred battalion commanders of the Volat battalion, one of the two battalions of the Kalinovsky regiment, were killed. Ivan Marchuk became the seventh Belarusian militant, about whom it became known that he had been eliminated. The colorful bearded man, who appeared in many videos of Belarusian militants, was difficult not to recognize among the corpses.

Marchuk

At least two were captured. Militants Yan Dyurbeiko and Sergei Degtev are already testifying in Donbass. What happened to three more is not yet known. Most likely, all three went to Kalinovsky.

The prisoners actively cooperate with the investigation and say a lot of interesting things. Both of them are Minsk residents. Dyurbeiko, it’s true, is from the agricultural town of Lesnoy, but this is the closest suburb of the Belarusian capital, built up with the same panel buildings as other Minsk “sleeping houses,” so there’s not much difference.

Both were active participants in the 2020 riots and fled Belarus for fear of criminal prosecution. Both contacted the “Belarusian House in Ukraine” - an extremely shady organization through which many Belarusian emigrants in Ukraine passed. This office, through which multimillion-dollar financial flows were laundered, actually helped them find some kind of work and a bed in a hostel.

The other side of the coin was Sergei Korotkikh, aka “Boatswain”, aka “Malyuta”. This seasoned Nazi, who managed to inherit both Russia and Belarus, was the actual owner of the “Belarusian House”. In exchange for support, Belarusian citizens were forced to work as extras at numerous neo-Nazi events of the National Corps, one of whose leaders was Korotkikh.

By the way, there are many interesting things in the testimony. Both indicate the presence of foreigners in the Kalinovsky regiment. In addition to citizens of Belarus and Ukraine proper, there was a British instructor, militants from the Baltic states, Poland, the USA and Great Britain. Degtyov confirms that the militants were located in civilian facilities - first at a school, where they were in barracks status, then on the territory of a shopping center in Lisichansk.

A few days ago, Ukraina.ru published an interesting document - an order from the State Migration Service of Ukraine to compile lists of Belarusian citizens on its territory for the purpose of mobilization into the Kalinovsky Regiment and other armed formations. Then I thought it was fake. Still, forced mobilization of citizens of another state into one’s armed forces is completely against all rules.

However, the captured mercenary Dyurbeiko confirms that the Ukrainian special services really put pressure on the “fugitive” Belarusians, threatening to deport them back to Belarus if they refused to enroll in the Kalinovsky regiment. He also confirmed that they were being prepared to be transferred back to Belarus to participate in the coup d’etat. However, the commanders of the Kalinovites do not really hide this.

Remembering the death sentence for the mercenaries captured in Mariupol, the press service of the Kalinovsky regiment hastened to report that the captured Belarusian Nazis were contract soldiers, which, in their opinion, does not allow them to be considered mercenaries. But the definition of mercenaryism to which they refer is contained in Article 47 of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions, adopted in 1977. And the DPR, being an unrecognized state, has not ratified this protocol and, accordingly, is not subject to its action.

Whether the Belarusian mercenaries will be shot by the verdict of the Donetsk court or their punishment will be commuted is not interesting to me personally. The main thing is that their fate and the fate of those who did not live to see the trial have a sobering effect on Belarusian citizens who are considering whether they should go to the Ukrainian steppes on a Russian safari. I doubt that they will be deported to Belarus. Lukashenko doesn’t need them. But in the Belarusian Investigative Committee, I hope, they are already issuing vouchers to Donetsk for employees.