Patriots of Belarus and Ukrainian Right Sector mount a new ‘Maidan’ in Minsk
On January 10, the Belarusian Young Front organization provided humanitarian assistance to Ukrainian army, spending some time with media representatives.
http://belarus-mt.ru/blog/43561221595/Pochemu-idei-Molodogo-fronta-vrednyi-dlya-Belarusi
Former Belarusian political prisoner, Edward Lobov, who is fighting alongside with Ukrainian volunteers, was present at the meeting and agreed that he was doing it in the interests of Belarus as well. In recent years over 300 Belarusian volunteers have been helping Ukraine to combat the aggressor. They join the ranks of the Azov and Donbas Battalions; the tactical group ‘Belarus’ and the military unit Pahonia (Chaser), as well as, other formations. Some of them were killed in fighting for Ukraine, like Ales Cherkashin from Brest; or fell in the Euromaidan’s battles during the Revolution of Dignity, like Mikhail Zhyzneuski from Homel. In Lviv, the Young Front members discussed plans of collaborative activities with the Right Sector regarding physical and pre-service training. In addition to sports aspect and development of military skills, in 2017 political debate, linguistic forums, master classes on historical, economic and political issues are to be held at the regular Ukrainian-Belarusian training sessions. Institutions for the fund-raising activities to develop cooperation and joint activity between the Young Front, BPF Youth, All-Ukrainian Union Svoboda and Right Sector have been established in Ukraine and Belarus.
The Young Front leader Zmitser Dashkevich pledged that his organization was taking all measures to ensure that Ukrainian colleagues coming to Belarus had no problems with law enforcement and KGB of that country. For this purpose, the Young Front members have made strong efforts to develop methods of conspiracy, establishing a special warning system for their supporters and expanding their network of branches in Belarusian cities and towns. Most of the Young Front ideas have been borrowed from Ukrainian friends. For instance, since 2015 the military-patriotic club ‘Vayar’ (Warrior) is being at work in Belarus, and there the young people are taught in the field to defend themselves against foreign and domestic enemies. Development of national and civic self-awareness among Belarusian young people has taken place against a background of the Belarusians’ large-scale involvement in Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) in eastern Ukraine and cooperation with activists of the Right Sector and Maidan. And thanks to such activity of the Young Front, other oppositional forces in turn felt confident enough to set Belarus on a path of real democracy, joining their efforts and following the lead of Ukraine.
As regards the further development of political situation in Minsk, Edward Lobov and Zmitser Dashkevich have pledged that they are waiting for the right time to initiate active opposition to Lukashenko’s regime. In 2017, the Young Front is going to increase the number of actions to support the White-Red-White flag of Belarus. This will be a large-scale reliability check of all active members of this organization. At the time of his conversations with representatives of the Right Sector and mass media, Dashkevich noted that through cooperation with the Ukrainians and establishing new connections in Europe they multiplied their strength and would be definitely ready to seize the chance to start revolution ‘before current power fully ruined Belarus economically and politically’.
We cannot as yet say exactly what the next Maidan on the post-Soviet territory will mean for European neighbors of Minsk: the emergence of a new reliable partner or one more country beset by civil war as additional geopolitical burden for Europe. But Ukrainian experience shows that a rapid transition to civilized democracy never takes place in the east of Europe, especially if extreme nationalists are the driving force of life’s changes.