Has Belarus appropriated part of Ukraine's territory for its own needs?

Today the length of the state border between Ukraine and Belarus is 1084 km. And this border is one of the most stable in the region — its entire eastern part has remained almost unchanged since the annexation of the Belarusian lands to the Russian Empire.

And just as long ago, in a protrusion surrounded on three sides by Ukrainian lands, there is the Belarusian village of Glushkovichi. Its name well describes its location — in the depths of the Polesie forests, far from any big cities and important roads.

Today there is only one road leading to Glushkovichi (P36 Mozyr — Lelchitsy — Glushkovichi), and a geographical incident is associated with it — according to most maps, it crosses the state border with Ukraine twice.

Павялічыць

After the start of the Russian invasion, which took place including territory of Belarus, Ukraine tightly closed its borders and mined them. But you can still drive along the road to Glushkovichi without problems.

It seems that using the territory of a foreign state without its permission — this is a gross violation of international law. But in this case, not everything is so simple.

Ukrainian Shield

Павялічыць

Today Glushkovichi is surrounded by Ukrainian territory and deep Polesie forests. The village once belonged to the Kyiv Voivodeship, but later for centuries it found itself in the loop of the Belarusian-Ukrainian border.

The Ukrainian Kopische, in the enlarged Korostensky district of the Zhytomyr region, also found itself in a similar protrusion.

Glushkovichi would have remained a remote outskirts of Belarus if not for the building stone that was found here. This southern tip of Belarus captures the northern part of the Ukrainian crystalline shield, rich in granites and other igneous rocks.

Павялічыць

Back in 1815, flour-grinding stones were produced here, but real development of the deposits came only in the second half of the 20th century.

In 1969, southwest of the village, near the border with Ukraine, they dug a quarry of building stone with the poetic name «Peasant Field».

At first, the stone was mined only for crushed stone, but in 1985 the development of another quarry «Nadezhda» began., where there was high-quality large granite that could be used as finishing. Today it can be seen on public buildings in Gomel and at the capital’s Oktyabrskaya metro stations. and «Victory Square».

True, the quarry in Glushkovichi could not withstand competition with finishing stones from Russia and Ukraine, which were more diverse in color and decorative qualities. Development was stopped, the quarry was filled with water, turning into a unique attraction for Belarus, reminiscent of the landscapes of Scandinavia and Finland.

Павялічыць

But in 2018, the rocky fairy tale ended — As part of import substitution, Belarus decided to mine granite again in Glushkovichi, pumped out the water from the quarry and resumed development. There was even an idea to build a railway line through Lelchitsy to the Mikhalki station near Mozyr, but nothing has been done in this direction for 10 years.

The first products from granite mined in the Glushkovichi quarry were used in 2019 year during the improvement of the Friendship Monument at the junction of the borders of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, near which Russian tanks will pass in a couple of years.

Павялічыць

While there is no railway, crushed stone and granite are transported along the only road connecting Glushkovichi with the «mainland».

Despite claims that this road was built in Soviet era for the development of granite, in fact it is indicated on the oldest maps. In Soviet times, a road was actually built here, but it leads from the road to Lelchitsy and towards Ukraine, on the border with which until 2022 there was a border crossing Glushkovichi — Maidan Kopischensky.

But the road from Glushkovichi to Lelchitsy did not cross the Belarusian-Ukrainian border either in the 19th century or until the second half of the 20th century.

Miracles of the border

Павялічыць

Павялічыць

If you compare today's maps with historical ones, you will notice that for centuries the border ran along the Ubort, a tributary of the Pripyat, and specifically in this place — along the oxbow of the river until the Struga flows into it. The road to Glushkovichi ran relatively far to the north of Struga and, accordingly, far from the border.

Today the oxbow lake seems to have completely dried up, and the border has passed so that the road to Glushkovichi crosses the state border twice.

Павялічыць

These changes are already recorded on the kilometer map of the General Staff, which was published for the Belarusian SSR in the 1980s e years.

Territorial changes were common for the Soviet state; they concerned not only the consolidation or fragmentation of the administrative units of the republics, but even the transfer of part of the territories from one republic to another. Typically, such a need was explained by economic needs, for example, proximity to a collective farm or regional center in another union republic.

So Belarus after the war lost a piece of its territory in favor of the Lithuanian SSR and in the same way gained a piece of territory transferred from the RSFSR.

Павялічыць

Павялічыць

But in the case of the Ukrainian border, the changes are difficult to interpret logically. In the area that went to Ukraine, there are no settlements, no arable land or clearings, and even if there were, this bank of the Struga is in no way directly connected with Ukraine.

By the way, This is not the only change in the old border in this area; a little to the east of Kopische a deep «gnawed out» border also appeared. — The Suzanovka swamp was completely transferred to Ukraine.

Павялічыць

A rather strange situation has developed on modern maps. For example, «Google Maps» show that the state border lies south of the road. And OpenStreetMap and Yandex Maps show the same border as it was in late Soviet times. On printed pages you can find both options. Who is right?

Demarcation

The State Border Agreement between Ukraine and Belarus was signed on May 12, 1997 and almost immediately, on July 18, ratified by the Verkhovna Rada. The National Assembly of Belarus did this only in 2010.

The document came into force in June 2013, and practical work on demarcation of the Belarusian-Ukrainian border.

Demarcation was complicated by the fact that large sections of the border pass through dense forests, swamps and other hard-to-reach places.

In 2018, at a meeting of the joint Belarusian-Ukrainian demarcation commission, the parties decided to demarcate about 120 km of the border in the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Work began the following year.

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Back in 2020, travel bloggers boasted that they could absolutely legally visit the territory of Ukraine when the borders were closed due to the pandemic. When crossing the border, we were met only by yellow and blue posts, but there was no border control — thanks to the river, it was impossible to get deep into Ukraine from here.

In 2021, Lukashenko signed Decree «On the administrative-territorial structure of the Vitebsk, Gomel and Mogilev regions». It noted that new borders of the regions will be established from June 1, with the exception of those areas that border Ukraine — here the boundaries should have changed according to the demarcation map after the demarcation was completed. 

Was it finally completed — it is unclear, at least there were no new decisions to change the borders of the Gomel region. It is likely that the completion of the process was prevented by the Russian invasion from the territory of Belarus into Ukraine, and now the border between the countries has an uncertain status.

Павялічыць

Павялічыць

Nevertheless, apparently, in Belarus itself they adopted a new version of the border as part of the exchange of territories of equal size: Belarus received a site with a road to Glushkovichi, and Ukraine lost several blocks of forest near the Suzanovka swamp.

In any case, we would not have found out about this very quickly, since materials and maps along the resulting border are not included in the decisions published in the public domain.

That is why most map services have not yet corrected the Belarusian-Ukrainian border, creating the impression that Belarus is illegally moving vehicles through the territory of Ukraine.

«Nasha Niva» — the bastion of Belarus

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