April 30, Pozirk. The state-run ONT television channel reported yesterday that the Committee for State Security (KGB) agents had arrested several youths for allegedly plotting terrorist attacks on instructions from the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU).
Daniił Harasim, 19, is suspected of high treason for allegedly contacting the Kastuś Kalinoŭski Regiment fighting Russia in Ukraine and intentions to join it, ONT said. He was forced to say on camera that he “contacted the special services of another country and handed over various kinds of information.”
Harasim reportedly took pictures of military facilities in Asipovičy, Mahiloŭ region, and is suspected of plotting acts of railroad sabotage, ONT said.
Ukrainian national Maryya Mysyuk, 16, is held in a pre-trial detention center on terrorism-related charges. The documentary Children in the Crosshairs. Recruited by the Enemy described the art college student as “commander of Black Nightingales terrorist cell.”
The group allegedly included five other minors: Trafim Barysaŭ, Dźmitryj Zacharoška, Anastasija Klimienka, Alaksandra Pulinovič and Siarhiej Žyhaloŭ. All are college students from Minsk and Brest regions.
The documentary also featured footage Barysaŭ’s and Žyhaloŭ’s interrogations at the detention center. They were accused of plotting to blow up administrative buildings in Baranavičy, Brest region.
A 16-year-old Stanisłaŭ (last name unclear) from Mahiloŭ was allegedly recruited by the SBU to commit crimes in Mahiloŭ and Russia’s Murmansk. It remains unclear whether he has been formally charged.
Following the 2020 political crisis in Belarus and the start of Russia’s war on Ukraine in 2022, the KGB has been using state-run television stations to make and broadcast propaganda films with unsubstantiated claims about alleged attackers trying to “destabilize” Belarus with explosives.
