KGB officer who was captured in Ukraine was returned to Russia, then sentenced in Belarus to no less than 10 years

He recently received no less than 10 years of imprisonment and was sent to serve his sentence in correctional colony No. 17 in Shklou, representatives of the DissidentBY initiative reported to Reform.news.

Recall that Belarusian citizen Zyazyulchyk fought on the side of Russia as part of the Wagner PMC "Redut" and was taken prisoner on September 19, 2022. The Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv sentenced him to 10 years in prison for mercenarism (Part 4, Article 447 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) in January 2023.

According to court materials, when the war began, the Belarusian, a native of Rudziensk, was serving under contract in Belarus. He learned about PMC "Redut" from his unit commander and decided to become a mercenary. In July 2022, he arrived in Tambov, Russia, and signed a contract with the PMC.

According to the contract, he was supposed to receive a monthly salary of 3.6 thousand dollars, as well as life insurance amounting to 60 thousand dollars. After three days of training, the Belarusian was sent to Ukraine as a machine gunner-retransmitter. Near Krasnopillia, he was wounded and returned to Izium, after which he was redeployed to the village of Svatove in the Luhansk region and to the village of Koroviy Yar in the Donetsk region. On September 19, he suffered a leg injury from his commander and was taken prisoner.

In February 2023, the SBU reported that Zyazyulchyk was a KGB officer who collected intelligence for Minsk and tried to ascertain possible Russian plans to remove Lukashenka from power. In the same year, he spoke about his work for the Belarusian KGB in an interview with bloggers Uladzimir Zolkin and Maksim Shabutski. As part of an exchange that took place on February 8, 2024, Ukraine handed over the captured Belarusian citizen to Russia.

In the autumn of 2024, he was detained while crossing the state border between the Russian Federation and Belarus. On August 8, 2025, the trial began in a closed session at the Mahilioŭ Regional Court.

His mother, Alla Mikalaeuna Rysiaviets, sought support from the "Veterans of Russia" movement. In turn, "Veterans of Russia" tried to resolve the issue through the Russian Embassy in Belarus, but they only noted that "opportunities to protect Maksim Zyazyulchyk are limited by his citizenship of the Republic of Belarus." The embassy promised to seek the dropping of charges under Article 133 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus ("mercenarism"), considering his combat merits — he was awarded the medal "For Courage" (decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated April 26, 2023, award No. 145837).

An appeal to Lukashenka with a request for a pardon for the mercenary also did not help.

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