Kindergarten worker couple gets 12 and 14 years for "treason" and "arms smuggling". Here's what family friends say

Dzmitry and Tatsiana Korsakavy. Photo: social networks

57-year-old Tatsiana Korsakava worked for many years as a kindergarten teacher at kindergarten No. 518 in the Minsk microdistrict Sokół. She also worked with children from inclusive groups, including children with autism. Her husband, 56-year-old Dzmitry, is involved in repairs and worked as a handyman at the same kindergarten as his wife.

Pelageya's friend says that security forces arrested the Korsakavys on September 26, 2025. They came to the Korsakavys in the evening and searched their home. The security forces also called Pelageya, Dzmitry and Tatsiana's daughter, who now lives in Ukraine, and forced Dzmitry Korsakav to tell her that her mother was in the hospital.

Later it turned out that this was not true. Pelageya's friend believes that the girl was pressured to force her to return to Belarus:

"They told her that she had to come so that her parents would be released. As if to say, you must understand that this will improve the situation," says the interlocutor.

Since then, the Korsakavys have been behind bars. Dzmitry and Tatsiana were accused of treason against the state (Part 1, Art. 356 of the Criminal Code), illegal actions with weapons and ammunition (Part 4, Art. 295 of the Criminal Code), and illegal movement of such items across the border (Part 3, Art. 333-1 of the Criminal Code).

The Korsakavys' daughter, Pelageya, worked at the same kindergarten No. 518 until 2020, participated in protests, and moved to Ukraine in September 2021.

With the beginning of the full-scale war, the girl decided not to leave for a safer country, but to volunteer. In addition to her main job as an SMM specialist, Pelageya, for example, is involved in the evacuation of civilians and coordinates the work of volunteers in cases of missile strikes. She comes to the scene of a strike, helping people after shelling to put their apartments in order as much as possible.

Pelageya's friend says that the girl sometimes sent videos to her parents filmed in Ukraine — for example, a video of a missile flying by. Perhaps, the interlocutor believes, something from those videos could have been used by the security forces in the case.

"They haven't traveled to Ukraine since 2022, only visited some relatives in Russia," says the interlocutor.

The security forces tried to contact Pelageya even before her parents' detention. They called the girl and lied that her mother was in the hospital — supposedly, therefore, she urgently needed to come to Belarus to her mother.

There is no information about the current condition of the Korsakavys.

"Pelageya is struggling with the injustice that [Lukashenka's regime] acts with fascist methods. It's terrible, this shouldn't be happening. We live in the 21st century, when this simply doesn't fit in one's head," says the girl's friend.

Dzmitry Korsakav was sentenced to 14 years in prison, Tatsiana Korsakava to 12 years, and also ordered to pay a fine of 50,000 rubles. Pelageya was sentenced in absentia to 11 years.

"Nasha Niva" cannot verify either the information received from Pelageya Korsakava's friend nor the accusations made by the authorities.

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