Paid $70 each. Who filmed participants of Freedom Day in Vilnius for Belarusian special services

Ukrainian students who filmed people during the Freedom Day celebration in Vilnius, by order of unknown individuals.

On March 25, in honor of Freedom Day, Belarusians organized festive events in Vilnius. The events began in the morning with a performance near the Seimas of Lithuania, where participants tied white-red-white ribbons on the trees of the "Belarusian Alley", and ended in the evening with a rally in the city center and a procession to the Belarusian embassy. The next day, propagandist Roman Protasevich showed video footage with identified faces of the protest participants, as well as threats against them, in his program on the state TV channel STB.

During the morning event near the Seimas, Belarusian journalists, including journalists from Svaboda, noticed two people who were behaving unusually and filming almost every step of the protest participants on their mobile phones. These were a young man in a hoodie and a girl. They did not hide their faces, so they did not arouse much suspicion among those present. To questions about why they were doing this, the young people generally answered — "for Telegram."

Immediately after this, the young man and girl filmed the beginning of the Belarusian car rally with white-red-white flags. In the evening, they were seen doing the same thing at the Belarusian rally dedicated to Freedom Day, in Lukiškės Square in the center of Vilnius. This time, they were accompanied by another young man who wasn't filming anything but stood next to them. At that point, the police guarding the rally became interested in the young people, but after a short conversation, they released them.

"Almost at the very beginning of the protest, two young men and a girl arrived. They immediately started recording videos, but did not behave brazenly," a Belarusian journalist who covered the rally shared her impressions the next day.

"It was strange that they were filming so much, because they didn't look like journalists, rather teenagers who stumbled upon the event by chance and barely understood what was happening. We approached the police to say that these people were suspicious and might be recording videos on behalf of Belarusian special services."

After some time, the journalist asked an acquaintance to approach them again, but, according to her, they did not make contact: "We only managed to find out that they are from Ukraine. They didn't walk in the column with everyone, but moved to the left and recorded video. During the march, one of the young men approached me and asked what questions I had for him. He spoke Ukrainian, but very poorly. I asked why they were filming, but he couldn't give a coherent answer, saying something about a diploma project. After the march ended, I approached the police myself. The police said they had checked the strangers' documents, that they were from Ukraine, but there was no evidence that they were working 'on order.' That's where it all ended."

The footage filmed by the young people appeared in Roman Protasevich's program the next day. Later, several Belarusian journalists who had been at the protests immediately recognized these same shots.

"From this angle, that very girl photographed me. I noticed that moment," one of them remarked. "These are their angles. They definitely filmed Seviarynets' speech. I stood next to them and looked at their phone," another Belarusian journalist noted.

Павялічыць

Screenshot of the video program by propagandist Roman Protasevich on the state TV channel STB, featuring footage filmed by Ukrainian students during the Freedom Day celebration in Vilnius.

A Svaboda correspondent also noticed how, during the morning event on the "Belarusian Alley" near the Seimas, the young man in the hoodie tied a white-red-white ribbon to a tree. His female friend was filming this. Later, this shot also appeared in Protasevich's program.

Svaboda managed to find out that the girl who filmed the protest participants studies at the European Humanities University in Vilnius. Later, her probable name was found.

The next day, the community of Belarusian journalists in Lithuania, through joint efforts, also found out the name of the young man in the hoodie. His contact was found through university students. To clarify all the circumstances of the incident, Svaboda reached out to him for a comment.

"There's work based on your profile, you can film footage from the rally"

The three young people indeed turned out to be citizens of Ukraine, and the girl is a student at the European Humanities University in Vilnius. The two young men are friends from the Donetsk region.

Svaboda managed to speak with the one of them who was in the hoodie and filmed people on his mobile phone. His name is Mykola Bahatyr. The girl, Hanna B. [full name known to the editorial staff. — RFE/RL], refused to comment.

Павялічыць

Mykola Bahatyr on the left, Hanna B. on the right. In the middle is Mykola's friend, who, according to him, was present but did not film anything.

As Mykola said, he is 19 years old. He moved to Lithuania in 2022. Before that, he lived in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, 30 kilometers from the front line. He is currently studying online, by correspondence, at a Ukrainian university, specializing in "media, SMM." He confirmed that it was his footage that was shown on Belarusian state television.

According to him, he knows what happened in Belarus in 2020 and it's not the first time he has attended events organized by Belarusians in Vilnius, but he didn't immediately mention Tsikhanouskaya's name.

"In principle, I knew there would be a rally and planned to go. But what prompted me was that an online friend wrote: 'there's work based on your profile, you can film footage from the rally.' And I want to develop, I'm really interested in filming and so on, and here's a rally too. So that's how I ended up going," Mykola recounts.

Mykola didn't go to the Belarusian protest alone; he took his Ukrainian friend Hanna B. from Vilnius with him. In the evening, another friend joined them.

"I asked where all this would go, what it was for, what kind of editorial office," Mykola continues. "My online friend conveyed that it was for 'Novaya Gazeta Europe,' for editor Iryna. That's all I needed to know. I Googled what 'Novaya Gazeta Europe' was. I saw that it's a good media outlet, that there's an editor Iryna, so why not try it? Especially since they promised $70."

And indeed, there is such an independent Russian-language publication, created by "Novaya Gazeta" journalists who left Russia after the start of its full-scale war against Ukraine in 2022 and now work from Riga. They do indeed have a journalist named Iryna Haryna. However, there have already been several known instances, starting in 2025, where unknown individuals, allegedly on her behalf, sent fake interview requests to politicians, public figures in Europe, and representatives of the Belarusian opposition. The journalists of "Novaya Gazeta Europe" themselves warned about this and promised to conduct an investigation. The last known such case was a fake interview request to the former editor-in-chief of KYKY.org, Nastya Rahatka, in February of this year.

Anonymous Online Friend from a Computer Game

The offer to go to the Belarusian rally and film the participants for what was supposedly a journalistic report, according to Mykola, was sent to him by a friend they met in the popular computer game Dota. He says he has never seen her in person and, as it turned out, knows practically nothing about her.

Two years ago, she first messaged him with an offer to play together. After that, they continued to correspond and sometimes even flirt. The only thing he could say was that her name is Ilona and she allegedly lives in Riga. After a year of correspondence, she started sending Mykola various assignments for filming in Vilnius: from city buildings to small scenes.

Павялічыць

An example of one of Mykola's online friend's photo orders with the inscription "Putin, Hague awaits you" on one of the skyscrapers in Vilnius.

"The first filming assignment wasn't strange to me, because I had told her I was learning to film and so on. We simply filmed Vilnius, just landscapes, almost the entire Old Town," the young man describes. "The first thing I asked was: who are we working for, where? They outlined a plot for us about walking through the Old Town, filming architecture, making small scenes, similar to those we do for our course projects. It was all for Iryna, all for 'Novaya Gazeta'."

When asked if Mykola had any doubts about what he was doing, he only mentioned the moment when they were asked to perform "scenes from movies." It seemed strange to him why the editor of "Novaya Gazeta" would need such scenes. As an example, he provides the following:

"Hypothetically, you're some baron, and you have a friend there, hypothetically. And you show how much you have of everything, well, you understand what I mean?.. A lot of money, a lot of powder, flour."

As an example of a filming assignment in Vilnius, Mykola mentioned this: to capture the inscription "Putin, Hague awaits you" on one of the skyscrapers. He added: "Well, now, of course, it's clear why there was a photo about Putin. And she also asked for a photo when the American flag was hanging in the square."

Doesn't he consider himself deceived? Mykola replied:

"I wouldn't claim that they openly deceived us, but I also won't say, I won't claim that I'm right. I'm just telling how it was, that's all. This is exclusively a matter for special services to investigate, let's stop there."

"Honestly, I never thought I'd get into such a situation"

Mykola recognized the footage in Protasevich's program that he had filmed and sent to his anonymous friend. It also sounded strange to Mykola when Protasevich called the three Ukrainian students "our law enforcement agencies" and "officers on duty" who were observing the event.

Павялічыць

Screenshot of the video program by propagandist Roman Protasevich on the state TV channel STB.

"We shouted 'Long live Belarus,' 'Glory to Ukraine,' and so on. In the morning, there were no problems at all. In the evening — yes, they started looking at us askance," says Mykola. "Honestly, I didn't think it would turn out this way. When I found out it ended up on a propaganda channel, honestly, I wouldn't want to repeat any of it."

As a result of the work performed, Mykola and Hanna were paid $70 each to their e-wallets. The young man is concerned about the fate of the people:

"I was told that these people would have problems. For example, the man who arrived in a Wolt car, he talked to us, smiled. He's a sincere person, very kind. I wouldn't want to compromise him. From my side, I apologize. I never thought I would get into such a situation. Especially compromising people. My reputation is important to me, which is why I'm talking to you now. I definitely didn't want to present myself this way. I mean — I'm speaking as a person from Ukraine, and I wouldn't want to represent my country in such a bad light."

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