Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya was asked in an interview with SBS Russian whether resistance remains in Belarus and about the role of Belarusians in Russia's war against Ukraine.
Photo: Tsikhanouskaya's Office
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya assures that the Belarusian resistance, the Belarusian democratic movement, is not just political diplomacy abroad.
"This is the daily work of brave people inside the country, because they form the backbone of our resistance. Today, the movement is horizontal and decentralized. It's impossible to protest openly in the country, so the resistance has taken other forms. Belarusian partisans, cyber activists, volunteers, journalists – we are all doing one common cause. Our independence is under threat, freedom is under threat. And every act of solidarity shows: even under the full control of the dictatorship, Belarusians have not given up," she says.
Tsikhanouskaya mentioned that from the first days of the war, Belarusians showed that they are not accomplices to the aggression, but its opponents.
"It was Belarusian partisans and cyber activists in 2022 who slowed down the transfer of Russian troops and equipment across our territory. This was an act of civic courage – especially after two years of brutal repression," she says.
Tsikhanouskaya adds that even now, people in Belarus are working underground – some are conducting information resistance, some are helping families of political prisoners, some are documenting the crimes of the regime and Russian servicemen. "And I want to emphasize that this is still an act of courage, because for any resistance, for any solidarity with political prisoners, people can be imprisoned for years and years. These are not months and days, these are five, 10, 15 years," she stresses.
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