"Maryna and Mikola talked all night." A family friend recounted what she feels in connection with Mikola Statkevich's release

Mikola Statkevich and Maryna Adamovich in April 2019. Photo: "Radio Svaboda"

In a personal message to Maryna Adamovich, Aksana Kolb asked her to apologize to Mikola for that conversation at the border when she was urging him to leave Belarus.

"I wrote to Maryna that I am here if she needs anything or even just to talk, and I asked her to convey my apology to Mikola. Maryna replied that Mikola remembers that conversation…

At that moment, I was only thinking about Maryna, knowing her difficult psychological and physical state. And only this motive was paramount when I actually pressured Mikola and said that if he didn't do it now, if he didn't cross the border, they might not see each other again. Yes, I'm ashamed of that, yes, I ask for his forgiveness for that…

As for Maryna, today I am very happy for her. It's just hard to even imagine what this woman went through these 5 years, especially the last few months. Before, she at least knew where Mikola was, she knew he was in Hlybokaye, she could send him medical packages, she could at least once a year send him some food there. But after September, she only knew one thing: that he had no warm clothes, he had no medicine, he had nothing. And she didn't know where he was. And that was, of course, terrible…

I know that he and Mikola talked all night. Maybe not all night, but for a very long time, and I understand how much they needed to tell each other. I hope that Mikola's condition is not very serious. The photos show the consequences of a brain stroke, but he is a strong person; he will recover. I am sure that even if he couldn't speak at all, he and Maryna would still talk all night, because they speak with their hearts."

Mikola Statkevich's release became known yesterday when his photos appeared at home in Minsk.

The presidential candidate in the 2010 elections was detained on May 31, 2020, while on his way to Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya's rally in Komarovka.

On December 14, 2021, at a closed trial in Homel, he was sentenced to 14 years in a strict regime penal colony on charges of organizing mass riots. Other prominent opponents of the authorities were also sentenced with him. He served his sentence in a colony in Hlybokaye, and in recent years was held incommunicado.

In 2020, he received the Andrei Sakharov Award.

On September 11, 2025, Statkevich was unexpectedly released along with 51 other political prisoners and was intended for forced deportation to Lithuania. Statkevich, however, refused to cross the border and remained in Belarus. After he was taken by Lukashenka's security forces, nothing was known about his fate.

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