Pardoned and deported Ukrainian, who spent two years in Shklov colony, mobilized to the front
Oleksandr Kotovich was conscripted into the army on February 19.
Oleksandr Kotovich before the Belarusian colony
Odesa resident Oleksandr Kotovich, who spent over two years in the Shklov colony due to critical comments against the Belarusian authorities, was mobilized to the front in his homeland, reports Euroradio.
Security forces accused Oleksandr of creating the channel "Belarus beyond the MKAD". But that's not true — he only wrote comments in the chat there. The man was released and exchanged with other Ukrainian citizens in November 2025.
Kotovich said he was conscripted into the army on February 19. This means that he never received victim status from the Ukrainian authorities for political persecution by the aggressor country.
This status grants Ukrainian citizens the right to medical rehabilitation and an official deferment from military service. Kotovich explained that he did not have time to submit an application, and now a lawyer is working on his case.
Ukrainian human rights activist Volodymyr Yavorskyi previously explained to Euroradio that the situation with recognizing the status of civilians who were in Belarusian captivity or in Belarusian places of detention is quite complex and ambiguous.
«In addition, obtaining the status is directly linked to the concept of an 'aggressor state'. As of today, only the Russian Federation is officially recognized as such. Belarus is not formally included in this list».
Nevertheless, in practice, there have been cases where people released from places of detention in Belarus were still granted the corresponding status.
«This is a systemic problem, linked to the fact that the commission's operational mechanism was developed before the full-scale invasion and was not designed for the current scale», — emphasized Yavorskyi.
Comments
Все, кто прошёл лукашистские тюрьмы, знают это.
О чем думал, когда , будучи гражданином Украины и живя в стране-союзнице России, привлекал к себе внимание?
В Беларуси хватали даже без причин граждан Украины, приписывая им шпионаж, а тут сам напросился