Zelensky instructs Ukrainian Security Service and Interior Ministry to provide protection to immigrants from Belarus
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky instructed the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) and the Ministry of Internal Affairs to provide protection to immigrants from Belarus who need it.
"Every Belarusian who can become a target for criminals due to his or her public political position should receive special and reliable protection. The SBU and the Ministry of Internal Affairs should work out a clear algorithm for assessing possible risks, as well as a system of responses to these risks in order to prevent any threat to these people," Zelensky said.
The Ukrainian Presidential Administration has said that such a list of Belarusian citizens has already been compiled. The Ukrainian authorities have begun work on risk assessment, additional support for their stay on the territory of Ukraine and their security.
According to Zelensky’s Administration, the decision was made after the Ukrainian law enforcement agencies received information about possible threats to a number of Belarusian activists, as well as due to the tragic death of Vitaly Shishov, who was found hanged in Kyiv.
The Ukrainian National Police does not rule out that Shishov was killed, and the murder was disguised as suicide.
Zelensky said he expects an investigation into the circumstances of Shishov's death and regular police reports about the progress in this case.
Amid repressions in Belarus, which intensified in 2020 after the presidential elections, representatives of the Belarusian opposition and other citizens who feel the danger from Lukashenko’s regime began to leave Belarus. Some of them moved to Ukraine.