Ukraine border officials say Belarusian opposition politician did not enter the country

On September 7, the Ukrainian border officials said that Belarusian opposition politician Maria Kolesnikova had arrived at the frontier, she, however, did not cross into Ukraine. According to state television media reports, Kolesnikova was detained at the border by the officials after she ripped up her passport in order to avoid deportation from the country. When the attempt to deport her was made, the leader tore her passport and wasn’t allowed inside Ukraine by border guards,” local sources told an Interfax-Ukraine agency.

On September 7, some masked men kidnapped Kolesnikova from the center of Minsk along with alleged two opposition leaders. The activists, Anton Rodnenkov and Ivan Kravtsov, along with the opposition leader were then driven to the Alexandrovka border at about 4 am in order to be dismissed back into the country. While Kolesnikova refused to enter into the territory, she deliberately shredded the passport. The car then pushed her out on the border near the guards as it sped into the territory with the other two activists. Belarus border guards then appear to have recaptured Kolsenikova, according to local media reports. Ukraine’s deputy interior minister, Anton Gerashchenko, posted on Facebook, saying, leader Kolesnikova managed to avert the “forcible expulsion” from her native country. It, however, remains unclear what happened after the event, and her whereabouts weren’t since then established. 

"It was a violent discharge from the native country with the aim of compromising the Belarusian opposition"—Anton Gerashchenko said on Facebook. "To present everything so that opposition leaders throw hundreds of thousands of protesters against Lukashenko's regime and flee to cozy Ukraine", he added.

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Border guard spokesperson confirmed detention

Although, Anton Bychokovsky, a Belarus border guard spokesperson reportedly said that Kolesnikova was detained at the border. While he wouldn’t disclose her location concretely, he confirmed that the leader was, in fact, detained. He further informed the agency sources that the leader was detained in accordance with which they [the group] left Belarus. Kolesnikova has been the opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya's campaign partner who opposed Alexander Lukashenko’s Presidency and deemed it rigged and unfair. She was held on September 7 with at least three other members of the coordination council, state media reports confirmed. 

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