The Council of the Belarusian People's Republic announced the awarding of the Order of the Pursuit Medal to 11 current and former political prisoners, 5 Belarusian fighters who died in the war in Ukraine, as well as the native Andrei Zeltsar, who died in 2021 during a shootout in his apartment, which was invaded by security forces .

Chairman of the Council of the BNR

signed the decree on awarding the following persons.

Political prisoners:

• Ekaterina Andreyeva

  and

  Daria Chultsova

  are journalists of the Belsat TV channel, convicted for the stream from the protests of 2020.

  Daria Chultsova is the only one among the awarded political prisoners who is now free.

• Mikalai Autukhovich

  and

  Uladzimer Gundar

  were convicted of "terrorism" (Autukhovich was sentenced to 25 years in prison, the disabled Gundar was sentenced to 18 years).

• Denis Ivashyn

  is an investigative journalist.

• Vladimer Labkovych

  ,

  Valyantyn Stefanovich

  - employees of the human rights center "Viasna", associates of the human rights defender

  Ales Bialiatski

  .

• Ihar Losik

  is a blogger, an employee of Radio Svaboda.

• Daria Losik

  is his wife, who selflessly fought for his release, until she herself ended up behind bars for an interview about her husband on the "Belsat" television channel.

• Eduard Palchys

  is a blogger, one of the organizers of the celebration of the centenary of the BNR in 2018.

• Polina Sharenda-Panasyuk

  is a public activist convicted of resistance during an illegal search of her home.

Posthumously honored:

• Alyaksei Avdzienka

  - in the past, a fighter of the "Belarus" tactical group, died in December 2022 in the Bakhmut direction

• Eduard Lobau

  is a former co-chairman of the "Young Front" and a political prisoner, since the summer of 2015 a fighter of the "Belarus" Tactical Group, later served in the 72nd separate mechanized brigade.

  Died in the battle near Vugledar in January 2023.

• Oleg Ponomarov

  , a fighter of the Ukrainian "Aidar" battalion, died in the Donetsk region in July 2022.

• Mihas Shavelski

  , paramedic of the Belarusian "Terror" battalion, died while rescuing another fighter in October 2022.

• Andrei Zeltser

  is a programmer who died while resisting a group of KGB operatives during a search of his apartment in Minsk in September 2021.

"Once again, we want to celebrate those Belarusians who, in the current difficult times, are paying the highest price for the freedom and independence of our Motherland," comments the Chairman of the Council of the BNR, Ivonka

.

- First of all, these are heroes who sacrificed their lives in the armed struggle against the enemies of the freedom and independence of Belarus.

Their names will go down in the history of our nation, and we all must continue their struggle.

Also this time, the Council of the BNR celebrates several of our relatives who have shown and continue to show their steadfastness in front of a foreign dictatorial regime, their human and civil dignity in prison.

Almost all of these people are still being held illegally for their active public or journalistic activities.

We await their release as soon as possible and demand their immediate release and all Belarusian political prisoners, of whom there are more than 1500."

• The medal of the Order of "The Pursuit" was founded in 2022 to celebrate civil, military, cultural and other services to Belarus.

  The first award took place in November 2022.

  Then the medal was awarded to Belarusian volunteers who died in Ukraine, as well as protesters who died in Belarus during the events of 2020-2021.