On the morning of December 5, Maria Kalesnikova remains in the surgical department of the emergency hospital in Gomli.

This was reported by the sources of Svoboda.

According to interlocutors, non-disclosure agreements were taken from the doctors, nurses and orderlies of the surgical department.

"Even so, doctors do not have the right to tell outsiders about the state of health of any patient.

This is a doctor's secret, there is a corresponding article in the criminal legislation.

At the same time, they were also threatened with up to six years in prison.

They did not say under which article," Svaboda's source said.

On November 29, it became known that Maria Kalesnikova, who is serving a sentence in the Gomel women's colony, was admitted to the intensive care unit of the emergency hospital.

She underwent an operation.

Nothing is known about the condition of the police prisoner, the lawyer was not allowed to see her, as well as her father, who is in the hospital.

On November 30, Svaboda was informed that Maria Kalesnikova was brought to the intensive care unit of the Gomel hospital in serious condition.

Earlier, Svaboda reported that she was being guarded by three security forces, one of them with a machine gun.

For prisoner patients admitted to the Gomel emergency hospital, located in the very center of Gomel near the city park, the surgery has a special ward with bars and a place for escorts.

It is likely that Maria Kalesnikova is in this special ward.

On November 30, Svaboda was informed that Maria Kalesnikova was brought to the intensive care unit of the Gomel hospital in serious condition.

In the hospital, she was guarded by three policemen, one of them had a machine gun.

In September 2020, the coordinator of Viktor Babaryka's headquarters, a member of the Coordination Council, Maria Kalesnikova, was captured by the security forces and tried to forcibly take her to Ukraine.

At the border, she tore up her passport, climbed out of the car window and returned to the territory of Belarus, where she was immediately detained.

Kolesnikova was tried behind closed doors together with lawyer Maksim Znak.

She was found guilty under three articles of the Criminal Code and sentenced to 11 years in prison on September 6, 2021.

What you need to know about the verdict of Maria Kolesnikova and Maxim Znak

The verdict was handed down on September 6, 2021, to poly-convicts Maria Kolesnikova and Maksim Znak.

Former members of Viktor Babarika's election headquarters and members of the Presidium of the Coordination Council were tried together behind closed doors.

The sentence was 11 years in the Kolesnikova colony and 10 years for Znak.

Judge Siarhei Yepikhov.

They were found guilty under three articles of the Criminal Code:

  • conspiracy to seize power;

  • calls for actions aimed at harming national security;

  • creating an extremist formation or leading it.

Maxim Znak and Maria Kalesnikova in court on September 6, 2021

The process took 17 sessions. None of the political prisoners admitted their guilt.


Maria Kalesnikova and Maksim Znak joined Viktar Babarika's election headquarters in May 2020 - almost immediately after he announced his decision to participate in the election campaign.

Both of them became the faces of the campaign along with Babaryk himself - they appeared at the procedure for submitting documents for the registration of the initiative group to the Central Committee, submitted there the signatures collected by Babaryk for nomination, actively commented on the progress of the campaign and the plans of the headquarters after the arrest of Babaryk himself.

After the creation of the joint headquarters, both Maksim Znak and Maria Kalesnikova continued their active activities in Svetlana Tikhanovskaya's election campaign.

After the establishment of the Coordination Council, Znak and Kolesnikov joined its presidium.