“If you can’t fight, help. If you can’t help, shut up”: young Belarusian woman joined the AFU in 2026 and fights as a drone operator
In civilian life, Belarusian Lio worked as a pet groomer. Now she is a drone operator in the Belarusian Volunteer Corps. Before heading to the front line, she lived in Poland. Lio spoke about what the war is like right now in a new episode of the “ChesnOK-Live” project.
Lio. Here and below — screenshots from the video: chestnok_live / YouTube
On her track record: dugouts, depots, and corpses
When asked by Ivulin what is on her “track record” during her still short period of service, Lio lists dugouts, depots, and enemy personnel. Other missions, she says, cannot be discussed.
However, she talks in detail about one particular spot. It was called the “zhmuratnya” [morgue/pile of corpses] — derived from the slang word “zhmur,” meaning a corpse. According to her, Russians headed there several times every single day.
“They literally walked over corpses. There was simply a mountain of dead bodies. The whole area was littered with their bodies. And so a new group arrives, sees so many corpses around, and thinks: this must be a safe route, I’ll go,” she describes the meat-grinder assaults.
Lio does not know the exact number of casualties. But every drone sortie to the “zhmuratnya,” she says, usually meant there would be one more dead body. She feels no sympathy for those who died there.
“Even though you had the choice to stay home, make something better there, build a house, raise a family, do something useful. Instead, you chose to just go and become one more addition to this pile of corpses.”
Women can command drones too
“When women join the army, I have only one question for Belarusian men: what are you waiting for?”
With these words, Lio addressed Belarusian men in her public video. In it, she said that even women like her, weighing 50 kilograms, are enlisting. She now weighs 59 kilograms, but her stance has not changed.
“Just sit it out while someone else does something for you? We must take responsibility for ourselves. And everyone should do more to the extent of their ability. Yes, I understand that not everyone should fight. But everyone who isn’t fighting should find a way to help more.”
In Ukraine, she recalls, she once saw a bumper sticker that she found very fitting: “If you can fight, go fight. If you can’t fight, help. If you can’t help, shut up.” Especially since the military today, Lio adds, covers an extremely wide range of tasks.
The decision to go to the front, Lio says, did not come overnight.
“What am I doing here when I don’t have children to look after? Meanwhile, some of the guys out there have families and loved ones. I really want them all to return home safe and sound, back to their families.”
About Max Korzh: where are the actions?
Lio speaks harshly about Belarusian rapper Max Korzh, who sings in Russian and repeats “Stop the war” at every concert. She believes that he “does nothing good or useful, but on the contrary is more destructive.”
“In 2020, he said: look, we’ve filmed enough videos for months ahead, let’s go home. And then there’s [this] ‘stop the war.’ Where is the real help? You can say a lot of things, but you need to look at what a person actually does. I haven’t seen any real actions from him.”
She calls calls for peace mere PR: “‘We stand for all that is good against all that is bad,’ blah-blah-blah.” When Ivulin points out that no Belarusian singer besides Korzh sells out 70,000–80,000-seat stadiums in Europe, Lio replies: so they gathered and jumped around — so what? What could change her attitude, she says, would be if the singer switched to the Belarusian language and made donations — genuine ones, not for PR.
Ivulin notes that many Belarusians live the same way: speaking Russian, pretending there is no war, and simply wishing for everything to end sooner. Lio answers that she doesn't intend to think for everyone; she knows what she wants herself:
“I want the so-called Russian Federation to collapse, for them to leave others alone, and for Belarus and Ukraine to be able to rebuild their countries, revive their nations, and live well for themselves.”
The dog didn’t choose, but the Russian did
There is room for tears in war, Lio says: she can cry and still do her job. She remembers one such incident to this day. A drone was already flying toward an occupier, and at that very moment, a dog ran toward him.
“I felt so sad. I thought that because this dog was running toward a military target instead of the other way, it, completely innocent, might also get hurt.”
Afterward, Lio says, no traces of the dog were found near the occupier. When Ivulin observes that she felt sorry for the dog rather than the human, she explains: the dog didn’t choose to end up there, whereas the Russian consciously came into the occupied territory of Ukraine, and he likely had a choice more than once.
In the right place
Asked whether she feels happy now, Lio answers affirmatively. Recently, she explains, she visited close friends, and everyone noticed that she looked happier.
“When I lived in Poland, I constantly had an inner feeling that I was out of place. I couldn't explain it logically. Right now, it’s just that kind of period for me — quests that I need to complete and clear so I can move on to the next level.”
When asked whether she fears that war will become a way of life and that she will remain a soldier forever, Lio answers that making plans during war is “pretty pointless.” But she doesn’t feel like she will be fighting for the rest of her life.
“I still hope that in some future I will become a mother and have a family. But who knows where I’ll be.”
Hope, she says, comes from people — specifically their best sides. War, according to her, doesn't make one lose faith in people: some show their best qualities in it, while others show their worst.
“And here it’s the same story as with bees and flies. You choose where to look, what to emulate, and which direction to head in. Because you can join people who make dishonorable choices, or you can look at the best, take them as an example, and follow their lead.”