After protests against the fraudulent 2020 elections, the Belarusian regime cracked down hard on critics. Five years later, many opposition figures are in exile, while their families are under pressure from the state back home.

Minsk

Belarusian activist Hannah Fedoronok was compelled to flee her country to avoid imprisonment following her involvement in the 2020 presidential election protests. After supporting opposition candidate Svetlana Shekhanovskaya and witnessing alleged election fraud, Fedoronok became an election observer and joined mass demonstrations, which were met with harsh government crackdowns. Now in Poland, she works at a shelter for Belarusian political refugees and continues to organize solidarity events, despite her family in Belarus facing intimidation and searches by authorities.

Other exiled Belarusians, such as Konstantin Shula, emphasize the ongoing need for international support as repression in Belarus persists. Fedoronok's daughter, Lizaveta, also fled the country and admires her mother's resilience. Despite moments of discouragement, Fedoronok remains determined to continue her activism until change is achieved in Belarus.

Belarus: Opposition in exile

I just want to see my mother. While I've been away, my sisters became grandparents of a girl and a boy. I haven't met them. I want to see my family, my friends. Anna Fedoronok is a political activist from Belarus. She has had to flee her homeland to avoid imprisonment. Now she continues her work from Poland. But what exactly happened? In 2020, Belarus held presidential elections. The country has been ruled for decades by Alexander Lukashenko. Since his first election in 1994, not a single vote has been free or fair. Independent journalists, NGOs and opposition voices are routinely persecuted. Then Sergei Shekhanovsky came to us, to our village, and started speaking the truth. That's when I decided to act. I picked up the flag and followed him. Sergei Shekhanovsky, a blogger, planned to run against Lukashenko in 2020. Authorities quickly arrested him. Hannah says that moment changed everything. She threw her support behind his wife, Svetlana Shekhanovskaya, who stepped in to run in his place. We started collecting signatures for her. We went to every village. To help document possible election fraud, Hannah registered as an election observer. When they counted the votes, there was a huge pile for Shekhanovskaya and a tiny one for Lukashenko. Still, the Central Election Commission declared Lukashenko the winner. That sparked mass protests across Belarus, which were brutally suppressed by the government. Hannah says she joined the protests and demonstrations and was detained several times. When the police came for her again, she fled to Poland. Today, Hannah works at a shelter in Warsaw for Belarusian political refugees. She says the people arriving now seem even more traumatized. It's very frightening there now. The repression hasn't stopped in five years. People who live at the shelter don't protest, don't march, don't give interviews. They're deeply intimidated. The regime knows exactly what it's doing. One person who does want to speak out is Konstantin Shula. He's staying at the shelter while searching for permanent housing. He says civil society in Belarus needs all the support it can get. For many people, things are harder than ever. And if you can help, even just a little, it matters. Don't stay silent. Keep fighting. Because Hannah continues to organize solidarity events for the opposition from here in Warsaw, the regime is targeting her family back home. They came to my mother. My mother is 80, and they searched her home. They detained my niece three times. Hannah's daughter, Lizaveta, fled Belarus two years after her mother. She's amazed that Hannah is still fighting the Lukashenko government. I didn't expect her to launch into such a whirlwind of activity. None of us did. Our mother is the locomotive, and we're the little carriages. Hannah admits there are moments when she feels tired, discouraged, and ready to give up. There have been so many times when I've thought, that's it. I've had tears. I'm done. I can't do this anymore. But there's always something that pulls me back. Something that won't let me stop. It will be like this until victory.

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