Beaten and sprayed with pepper gas: a Belarusian man and his girlfriend attacked on New Year's Eve near Warsaw
24-year-old Aliaksei Biadnienka, who lives in Warsaw, came to his girlfriend's place in Żyrardów, near the capital, on December 31st to celebrate New Year's Eve. Half an hour before midnight, the young couple went to a concert. Aliaksei's girlfriend's sister, who is not yet 18, joined them. As the young man told "Belsat", they never made it to the city celebration, as they were attacked by unknown assailants, beaten, and sprayed with pepper gas.
"He ran up and started punching me in the head"
Żyrardów is a small town 50 kilometers southwest of Warsaw. It has a population of just over 41,000 people. There is also a small Belarusian community here, as well as many Ukrainians.
Aliaksei's girlfriend is Ukrainian. She lives with her mother and sister. The Belarusian came to visit them. Together, they celebrated the "Ukrainian New Year" - an hour earlier than the "Polish" one, due to the time difference. They listened to Volodymyr Zelenskyy's speech, drank a little champagne, then some tea, and around 11:30 PM, Aliaksei and the girls went for a walk to the city center, where a festive concert and fireworks were planned.
"We went towards the concert, and on our way, we met two men and one girl. The girl was dressed normally, the men were all in black and wearing balaclavas. They were near a 24/7 store. The girl was talking to the saleswoman. I couldn't even imagine that something could happen near a store. So we just kept walking," Aliaksei recounts.
One of the men, according to the young man, walked towards him and pushed him with his shoulder. Realizing that a conflict was starting, the Belarusian told the girls to go ahead and pay no attention, and then followed them himself.
"The man, turning to me, asked something in Polish, but I didn't hear him because he was wearing a balaclava, and I had a hat and a hood on. I asked what he wanted and kept walking, ignoring him. I hoped that this would help prevent the situation from escalating, as I was with my girlfriend and her sister, who isn't even 18 yet. When they realized we were ignoring them, the man who had pushed me followed us, shouting something that I also couldn't make out. We kept walking forward. About 5 meters later, that man ran up to me and started punching me in the head. I ignored the first blow because I understood that there were several of them, and I was with the girls, so it wasn't worth reacting, and I told them to run," Aliaksei recalls the events of New Year's Eve.
"Lost my sight, couldn't breathe properly"
The Belarusian and the girls ran forward. Our interviewee realized that they would hardly get far on the snowy road, so he stopped and turned to those who were chasing them, to give the girls a chance to run as far as possible. The guy had a small pepper spray can for self-defense. He took it out, but didn't manage to use it – the second attacker pulled out a huge can, similar in size to a fire extinguisher – a "pepper spray" used by security guards, and started spraying the Belarusian with it.
"The substance was very strong, because I immediately lost my sight, couldn't breathe properly, or do anything. I only heard my girlfriend run up from behind and try to restrain the man who was about to hit me," Aliaksei says.
The girl was also sprayed from the can then, and she started screaming. The Belarusian says he was very scared for her and her sister. At that moment, the girl who was with the attackers and standing near the store shouted in Polish - "Let's run!". Literally a minute later, all three fled behind the store, and the victims of the attack saw them no more.
Aliaksei and his girlfriend couldn't see anything, the Ukrainian girl's underage sister was in confusion. Our interviewee tried to hail a car by sound, but no one stopped. The young people rubbed their eyes with snow, but it didn't help. Then they ran to the store and asked the saleswoman for water or milk to wash their eyes. She said they had to pay, but it was impossible to do with a card. Aliaksei and the girls had no cash. They asked passers-by for help; people asked what had happened and walked past.
"Maybe they thought we were drunk, or that we were the instigators. The saleswoman might not have seen the conflict. But it definitely should have been caught on cameras, because it was on the main street of the city," Aliaksei says.
The Belarusian asked the saleswoman to call the police, but she refused. Then the girlfriend's sister called her mother, who came running and took everyone home. They didn't call an ambulance or the police immediately because they wanted to leave as quickly as possible – they were afraid the attackers might return.
Head trauma and acute stress reaction
According to Aliaksei, at home, they spent another 3-4 hours washing themselves and recovering. The young people recorded their condition at that moment on video.
The next day, January 1st, they went to the police to file a report. They were asked to come back tomorrow, January 2nd. When the victims of the attack arrived at the appointed time, an interpreter was called for them, and a report was drawn up.
Aliaksei asked for a referral to a forensic expert to "document" the injuries. The police refused and only asked him to send photos of the bruises to the investigator's email. The Belarusian sent the email and went to the hospital for a regular examination, which confirmed the young man had a hematoma on his head and the effects of pepper gas.
"A hematoma measuring 2x1 cm on the scalp in the occipital region, a palpable thickening of the subcutaneous tissue, tender to the touch. <…>. Superficial head trauma was detected," states the medical report Aliaksei received.
The document issued at the hospital for his girlfriend states that she was diagnosed with an acute stress reaction.
Aliaksei brought these documents to the police. But, since these are not conclusions from a forensic expert, the young man does not know if the document will carry the necessary weight.
Motives unknown
Aliaksei does not know why those men attacked them. He claims they did not provoke them in any way and tried to ignore their taunts for as long as possible. The young man does not know if there were any xenophobic motives, because the attacker shouted something at him, but it was impossible to hear what. The men in balaclavas did not appear drunk either. They stole nothing from their victims and fled quickly, so their motivation remains unknown.
If the police do not pursue the case and do not search for the attackers, the Belarusian will appeal to the prosecutor's office.
Aliaksei Biadnienka has been living in Poland for over 2 years and has received international protection there. He says that during all this time, he has hardly encountered aggressive and/or xenophobic attitudes from Poles, and that Ukrainians, including his girlfriend, suffer more from this.
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