{"id":100892,"date":"2024-08-16T17:39:14","date_gmt":"2024-08-16T14:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/100892\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T20:40:57","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T20:40:57","slug":"minsk-declares-pahonia-regiment-extremist-group","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/100892\/","title":{"rendered":"Minsk declares Pahonia Regiment extremist group"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Telegram (Pahonia Regiment)<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

August 16, Pozirk.<\/em><\/strong> Belarus has declared Pahonia an extremist group, the interior ministry announced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group consists of the Pahonia nonprofit and the Belarusian Pahonia Regiment, it claimed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It listed Vital Hurko\u016d, Andrej Kra\u016d\u010danka, Kanstancin Jaka\u016dle\u016d and Siamion Bukin as complicit in the group’s activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also banned Pahonia’s Telegram channels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ukrainian Ministry of Justice registered the Pahonia nonprofit in November 2022. Its declared goal was to support Belarusian volunteer fighters in Ukraine and unite the Belarusian diaspora for the liberation of Ukraine and Belarus “from russian occupiers and \u0142uka\u0161enka’s criminal dictatorship” (sic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to reports, the nonprofit was founded by Belarusians living in Ukraine and fighters of the Pahonia Regiment. Hurko\u016d, a Belarusain kickboxer who won several Muay Thai world championships, was named director of the NGO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kra\u016d\u010danka is the decathlete who won the silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Jaka\u016dle\u016d is a former head coach of the Vicia\u017a handball club. Bukin is a former head of the Belarusian national artistic gymnastics team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The formation of the Pahonia Regiment in the Ukrainian International Legion was announced on March 30, 2022. It was reportedly cofounded by public figure Vadzim Prakopje\u016d, a former Minsk restaurateur, and Valeryj Sacha\u0161\u010dyk, then-security chief at the United Transitional Cabinet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In June 2022, the regiment’s first group of volunteers signed contracts with the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The regiment was reportedly trained by US Army veteran Matthew Parker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prakopje\u016d presumably left the regiment in September 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In July 2023, Radyjo Svaboda<\/em> reported that the Pahonia regiment “effectively ceased to exist.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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