Vilnius, Lithuania – As his daughters slept in the back seat, his wife filmed him driving, his eyes narrowed, focused on the dark road ahead. Andrei, a doctor, had been planning his escape from Belarus since 2020, when the Kremlin-backed regime suppressed an uprising, plunging the country into deeper authoritarian rule and plunging it into a climate of fear.
When Russia introduced its attack on Ukraine from the southern threshold of Belarus, getting out suddenly felt more urgent. His circle of relatives watched from the windows of his apartment building as helicopters and missiles thundered in the sky. Within days, Andrei, whose call was replaced for protection, said he was forced to treat Russian infantrymen wounded in Moscow’s failed attack on the Ukrainian capital, Kiev. Then, in late March, he was jailed on trumped-up corruption charges. Thoroughly weighing the risks, he made the decision that it was time to leave.
In order not to arouse suspicion, Andrei asked one of his neighbors to sneak out of the relatives’ circle of suitcases, full of legal documents, some clothes and a photo album, of their construction and hide them in a car. Late on a Friday night, after their shift at the hospital ended, they found themselves in a parking lot without security cameras to retrieve their bags. Then, the circle of relatives left.
Videos received through CNN
It took Andrei months to chart the most productive path: recommendations on encrypted messaging apps from a Belarusian medical solidarity group, activist organizations and others living in exile.
Driving at night, they traveled from their home in Mazyr, a town in the Gomel region of southern Belarus, more than 370 miles north of the country’s border with Lithuania.
. . . Even though everything got to the point where he had been told he could simply cross.
They stopped on a rural dirt road and Andrei said goodbye with a kiss from his wife and daughters. All right, they would cross the official border checkpoint and meet him in Lithuania, where he was making plans to apply for asylum. In one of her daughter’s toys, Andrei had hidden a USB stick containing evidence of what she had witnessed: dozens of X-rays of wounded Russian soldiers. He told them he enjoyed them, turned around and went into the forest.
As Andrei made his way through the tangled, disoriented undergrowth, he ran into a Belarusian border police station and felt a sense of terror: he knew his call on a government list of other people who were banned from leaving the country and, if his passport details were checked, he would be sent back to prison.
Fortunately, the cabin is empty. And when he reached the riverbank, he swam as fast as he could, his center throbbing.
On the other side, Andrei recalls, a burly Lithuanian was holding a fishing rod with wide eyes. Speaking in Russian, he said it was the first time he had noticed someone running away. “Is it so bad in Belarus?” The guy asked.
“Yes,” Andrei replied, recalling all that Belarusians had endured at the hands of their country’s brutal regime, and now the blood in which they had been dragged. “It is. “
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in February allowed his best friend, Russia, to use the country, which has a 674-mile border with Ukraine, as a base for his invasion. With his permission, Russian President Vladimir Putin has treated Belarus as an extension of Moscow. territory, repair teams and around 30,000 soldiers for joint military training: the largest deployment in the former Soviet state since the end of the Cold War. and fighter jets near the border.
When Putin declared his “special army operation” in a pre-dawn televised broadcast on Feb. 24, he sent missiles, paratroopers and a huge armored column of infantrymen south from Belarusian soil, unleashing what was intended to be a lightning attack against beheading the Kiev government. But as Russia’s advance stalled and setbacks piled up, Moscow began bringing wounded foot soldiers across the border into Belarus to be treated at various civilian hospitals, a CNN investigation has found. Register, unknowingly, recruited as near-combatant doctors, and forced through their Hippocratic oath to provide vital care.
Many were forced to sign confidentiality agreements and told not to report what they had seen. Some, like Andrei, later fled. From their operating tables, Belarusian medical personnel had perhaps the best idea of the scale of Russia’s casualties in the first weeks of the war, describing shocked young infantrymen who thought they were sent out for training only to find themselves losing a extremity in a war for which they were ill-prepared. While Lukashenko admitted that Belarus offered Russian army personnel medical assistance, little is known about what happened in the hospitals they were taken to, which were under strict surveillance. In interviews with Belarusian doctors, members of the country’s medical diaspora, human rights activists, military analysts and security sources, CNN probed Belarus’s role in treating Russian victims as the Kremlin sought to hide them. Their testimonies and documents, as well as medical records, offer insights into the Belarusian government’s complicity in the war in Ukraine, as fears grow that the country could be drawn further into the fighting.
X-rays received through CNN
The exact number of Russian infantrymen killed or wounded in Ukraine remains a mystery to everyone, but some inside the Kremlin. The Russian Defense Ministry said on March 2 that the first losses amounted to 498 Russian infantrymen killed and nearly 1,600 wounded in combat. U. S. estimates. The US and NATO at about the same time put the death toll at a much higher level: between 3,000 and 10,000. Seven months after the war, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu revised the official count and said some 6,000 Russian infantrymen had been killed. The Pentagon said in August it believed the real toll was much higher: up to 80,000 dead or wounded.
Belarus’ stranglehold on data (Lukashenko’s regime has put heavy pressure on independent media, limited freedom of expression, and enacted a new law extending the death penalty for “attempted acts of terrorism”) has provided a useful haven for Russia by cracking down on the main points of its wounded and dead. In recent months, several other people have been arrested for filming Russian army vehicles, according to Viasna, a Belarusian human rights organization whose recently imprisoned founder awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Despite the repressive environment, indications of Moscow’s loss of troops have emerged on social media and local reports. In late February, Belarus’ Hajun Project, a militant surveillance organization that tracks army activity in the country, began sharing Telegram photographs of Russian medical cars. transporting fighters across the border from the front line. Based on a network of reliable local sources, the organization published photographs of Soviet-era green “PAZ” buses marked with red crosses and a white letter “V,” a symbol purporting to constitute “Vostok,” or is, and armored ambulances in the Gomel region.
Source: Mapcreator/Maxar Technologies
It turns out that some were taken to box hospitals, which had sprung up near the border between Belarus and Ukraine.
On February 22, in the airbox of VD Bolshoy Bokov, Maxar Technologies learned about the deployment of dozens of military vehicles, tents for troops and a cash hospital, installed in a former Belarusian airbox near Mazyr. Source: Maxar Technologies
On March 14, in Naroulia Another cashier hospital, a larger group of beige tents, detected in the city of Naroulia, closer to the border with Ukraine. Source: Maxar Technologies
Other medical cars were spotted near hospitals in the towns of Gomel and Mazyr.
February 23, near Mazyr city hospital A photo shared on the eve of the invasion captured an armored ambulance outside the Mazyr city hospital. Source: Belarusian project Hajun/Telegram
On February 28, near Mazyr. A few days later, a column of several “PAZ” medical buses was filmed driving along a local road.
On February 28, at Mazyr station, a video showed men dressed in fatigue outside Mazyr’s main station, appearing to bring wounded infantrymen in an exercise bearing the red RZD logo of the Russian state-owned Russian Railways. Source: Mozyr For Life/Instagram
“We can verify that they (the Russians) used Belarusian infrastructure, added medical buildings and cash flow hospitals. They also used morguesArray. . . and they used exercise stations or air bases to send dead or wounded, we have pictures of them,” Anton Motolko said. , a Belarusian blogger who fled Minsk in 2020 and founded the Belarusian project Hajun, told CNN that Motolko said his resources told him that morgues in the domain were overflowing and that a steady flow of wounded infantrymen had arrived at the hospital in the town of Mazyr, where Andrei worked.
In mid-February, Andrei watched in horror as his hometown of Mazyr supposedly became a sprawling military base: armored tanks raced through the streets, Russian infantrymen searched local department stores, and they were given in downtown bars. He and his circle of relatives no longer felt safe and avoided being outdoors after dark. They soon began to suspect that Russia was preparing for war. As army training was due to end on Feb. 20, Andrei said his hospital management had extinguished a directive to treat Russian infantrymen until March 10. “They will have to have an idea that the war will end then,” Andrei said, adding that two days later, Russian officials from the Mazyr open-air box hospital cleaned up the city. supplies for blood banks.
On the morning of February 24, the first day of the fighting, Andrei called a hospital official who gathered all the doctors in a meeting room and ordered them to leave 250 beds free for Russian victims, prevent all scheduled surgeries and send Belarusian patients as they could. Alone at home. ” We were then warned that we were allowed to share data on Russian soldiers. We had to sign a confidentiality form, forbidding us to share photos, documents,” Andrei said. “They told us we were being monitored” through the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), who had tactics to monitor our phones. Although he saw Russian FSBs, Andrei said he had blocked local agents of the Belarusian State Security Committee (KGB) stalking the corridors of the hospital. Mazyr Municipal Hospital responded to CNN’s request for comment.
“We were warned that we were allowed percentage of data on Russian soldiers. We had to sign a confidentiality form, which prohibited us percentage of photos, documents.
Aliaksandr Azarau, head of ByPol, an organization created through former members of Belarus’ police and security services, told CNN that Mazyr’s government went to great lengths to keep data on the number of wounded Russian infantrymen and the types of injuries they suffered. in an envelope. Azarau said KGB branches for Mazyr, as well as the region’s internal affairs division, placed Mazyr’s municipal hospital “under 24-hour surveillance” while “warning staff of their non-public duty to disclose data about the army workforce. “in treatment in hospital. “
Still, Andrei secretly controlled photocopying X-rays of dozens of infantrymen treated at Mazyr hospital, which he shared with CNN. He said, adding that he had accepted the threat to offer evidence of an aspect of the war that had remained invisible, and smuggled it out of Belarus on his daughter’s toy cell phone. The scans included the names and ages of the infantrymen, many of whom ranged in age from 19 to 21, capturing their black-and-white wounds.
X-rays received through CNN
Andrei said he saw the largest wave of casualties arrive en masse at Mazyr hospital in the early hours of Feb. 28. After receiving a call that the infantrymen were coming, medics piled up at the front of the emergency room around midnight, waiting. Soon, buses A full number of wounded infantrymen began to arrive. Russian infantrymen carried them inside on stretchers and threw them in front of the main gates, Andrei said.
Doctors temporarily assessed soldiers’ wounds, drew numbers on their foreheads to mark them in order of priority, classified their wounds and sent them in for scans or surgeries.
In total, more than a hundred Russian infantrymen arrived with facial wounds, open wounds, blast fractures and gunfire, Andrei said.
On the same day, a local state television station published a report claiming the hospital was functioning normally, which Andrei said in an attempt to counter rumors that he was treating Russian troops.
In reality, the hospital was full of soldiers, Andrei said. Some were missing their eyes, others had to be amputated – they had arrived with gangrenous and damaged limbs – some were paralyzed, one had lost part of his brain, others his lower jaw. Several had been given tourniquets for days to quench blood, their bodies covered in bullets and shrapnel, X-rays showed. “There were more wounded requiring surgery than operating tables,” Andrei said. They gave us their wounded [soldiers], and we didn’t care about them. “
Many Russians had fought in outdoor spaces in Kyiv: in Hostomel, where they suffered heavy casualties at a key airfield, in Bucha and Borodianka, suburbs they terrorized for weeks, and in Chernothroughl, where their forces were exposed to radiation from the highly poisonous gases. known as the “Red Forest”. Andrei said he treated wounded Russian paratroopers and special forces in the failed attack on Hostomal airfield, where he was told his helicopter had been attacked. “They were professional assassins. We had to treat them, it was our job. I was disgusted by all that. But, as a doctor, I don’t really have the right to be disgusted,” he said. Mazyr’s hospital, according to his X-ray, was among those Andrei smuggled.
But most of the wounded were young foot soldiers and recruits from remote regions of Russia, Andrei said. aggression” against Ukraine, in violation of foreign law.
On March 1, at a Belarusian Security Council meeting, Lukashenko declared that hospitals provide Russian infantrymen with life-saving treatment. “We’re treating them and we’ll continue to treat those guys, in Gomel, Mazyr and I think some other district. “capital when they transport them to us. What’s wrong with that?The wounded have gained medical care during any war,” he said, before dismissing reports that Russia had suffered mass casualties as fake news.
“Our self-exiled opposition and others are shouting about the thousands of wounded [Russian military] handed over to Gomel. None of that. We treated about 160 to 170 wounded during this entire period,” Lukashenko added.
But Andrei and other local fitness professionals tell another story. In early March, between 40 and 50 wounded Russians were taken to hospital in Mazyr every day, transported back and forth like a “treadmill,” Andrei said. Darkness of the night, or early in the morning, in buses and green ambulances of the Russian army. “We, the doctors at the hospital, thought maybe they were worried about safety, so they were put under the canopy of the night. They were afraid of traffic to see the red cross in their vehicles. The Russians also tried to take the dead to the hospital, he said, adding: “They didn’t know what to do with them. “
Anna Krasulina, a spokeswoman for exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, told Ukrainian parliamentary TV channel Rada in March that Mazyr’s morgues were flooded with the bodies of dead Russian soldiers. In April, Tsikhanouskaya met with members of the U. S. State Department. The U. S. Department of Defense in Washington, D. C. , handed them evidence of Lukashenko’s involvement in the war in Ukraine. The documents, noted via CNN, detail how Belarus is a key infrastructure for Russia, adding missile launch positions, rail lines and medical assistance.
Citing open-source information, Franak Viačorka, Tsikhanouskaya’s chief political adviser, told CNN that Russians used hospitals in the Gomel and Brest regions between the start of the war and April, but that there were also “many cases where doctors refused to accept Russian. “”soldiers,” describing it as popular resistance. He added that the Russians have not been infrastructure like hospitals in Belarus since April.
“There were more surgery victims than operating tables. “
Mazyr, one of at least 3 hospitals in the Gomel region that treated wounded Russians, according to medical and security sources, who estimated that the services jointly treated many soldiers. Mikalai, a doctor who left the domain and whose call also replaced his safety. , said the regional clinical hospital and the Republican Research Center for Radiological Medicine and Human Ecology were among those offering care, but the latter largely operated with the Russian medical corps of workers brought in for war.
After receiving a patient transferred from the Republican Center for Radiotherapy Research and Human Ecology, Mikalai said he was curious to know how the hospital worked. So, beyond the night, he walked slowly past the complex. “I saw when it started to get dark, army medical buses going to the hospital. . . Green ‘PAZ’ cars, with the windows covered with white cloth,” he said.
Azarau, director of ByPol, said the Republican Research Center for Radiological Medicine and Human Ecology used to treat Russian servicemen involved in the attack on the Chernothroughl nuclear plant, some of whom showed symptoms of radiation poisoning. early 1990s to provide specialized medical care to the local population affected by the Chernothroughl disaster.
Mikalai said it was not unexpected that the Belarusian and Russian governments would do everything possible to keep secret the truth of what was happening behind closed doors in those hospitals. The concept of this wonderful Russian invasion,” he said, adding that the government sought to give the impression that the scenario was under control and that reporting a large number of casualties was false. “But that’s the wrong truth. . . They tried to hide it. “
Reacting to CNN’s investigation, Tsikhanouskaya said the testimonies of the Belarusian doctors were “important evidence” of “Lukashenko’s crimes and complicity in the war” and about the withdrawal of Russian troops from Belarus.
“This is evidence that the regime participated in and facilitated Russian aggression. But it is also a testament to the courage of those Belarusian doctors. Despite the threats and terror, they recorded the fact so that Belarusians and the world knew what Putin and Lukashenko are doing in Ukraine,” he said in a statement, adding that the Lukashenko regime’s involvement in Putin’s war “should not condemn Belarusians. People in the role of pariahs.
Unraveling Belarus’ role in Ukraine’s war has taken on new urgency since Lukashenko announced in October that Russian infantrymen would be deployed to the country to shape a new “regional grouping” and conduct joint training with Belarusian troops, raising fears that it could simply drag the country further into the conflict.
“The fact is that Belarus has long since ceded its sovereignty, particularly to Russia,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said at an Oct. 12 briefing, responding to a query about Belarus’ stance, which the U. S. is watching closely. that President Putin was able to use what would be the sovereign territory of Belarus as a playground, the fact that brutal attacks against other Ukrainians emanated from a sovereign third country, Belarus in this case, is another testimony to the fact that the Lukashenko regime does not have at heart the most productive interests of its other people.
Russia has not only violated the sovereignty of Belarus, but has also posed a serious challenge to NATO: 3 members of the alliance have a border with Belarus. Putin has been laying the groundwork for turning Belarus into a vassal state for some time. Rigged presidential elections in 2020 consolidated Lukashenko’s long rule, prompting widespread pro-democracy protests, he clung to force with Putin’s help. with conditions. Beholden to the Kremlin, Lukashenko has supported Russia’s military moves from the sidelines, so far avoiding sending his own troops into the fray. But he would possibly be forced to replace his position, while Putin racks up losses.
“As far as our participation in the army’s special operation in Ukraine is concerned, we are involving it. We don’t hide it. But we didn’t kill anyone,” Lukashenko said in early October. “We offer medical care to other people. ” We treat other people if necessary,” he added.
However, many in Belarus are terrified that this could change. Most Belarusians don’t need their country to participate in the war, according to a recent online poll by Chatham House, which found that only 5% helped send troops to help Russia. Andrej Stryzhak, a Belarusian human rights activist and discoverer of BySol, an initiative that helps those suffering political persecution in Belarus, who in turn faces politically motivated fees for “funding extremist formations,” said the organization saw an increase in requests for assistance when the invasion began. The organization has created a Telegram channel with recommendations on how to flee abroad, for other people who do not help in the war or are afraid of being mobilized. channel with 30,000 followers,” Stryzhak said, adding, “It’s a very extensive painting for us. “
Andrei contacted BySol to help him get out of the country, but last August, with the borders with Ukraine and Russia largely impassable, they were unable to help him. In the end, he helped him through an informal network of Belarusian dissidents living in exile in Lithuania, who identify possible crossing points. They said they had also noticed an increase in the number of Belarusian men fleeing for fear of being forced to fight in Ukraine.
Having noticed the devastation the war has caused firsthand, Andrei said he feared being sent to Ukraine as a combat medic. In Russia, doctors are under increasing pressure. It had won letters from the government telling them to leave the country for “security reasons,” and the Russian parliament said some 3,000 doctors could be called in as part of Putin’s policies for a “component mobilization” of troops.
In March, Andrei arrested along with dozens of other Belarusian doctors, many of whom specialized in surgery, on charges of corruption and bribery, which he denies. After being imprisoned in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, for a month and a half, Andrei said he felt his detention could be a tactic to intimidate them, to make them think twice before leaving the country. When he was released, he said he communicated through his local military wing and told him to enlist in the army. to the Army enlistment workplace with my documents. . . Of course, I didn’t go,” Andrei said.
Now settled in a European country with his family, Andrei is relieved not to wonder when or if he will simply be sent to war. Instead, he focuses on national medical exams so he can start practicing in his new home again.
“Ukraine is very expensive for me. I was worried about my close friends and the circle of relatives who lived there,” he said, adding that Belarus’ complicity in the war was unbearable. “We wrote ‘Slava Ukraini’, saying Ukraine was going to win. My relatives said we would do all this. And yet, the bombs were dropped on them from the territory where I lived.