Hundreds of Belarusian citizens who fled the country after the mass protests of 2020 are undergoing military training in Poland to overthrow the Lukashenko regime.
Source. The Times writes about it.
The training is conducted by former officers of the Belarusian security forces BYPOL, who were also forced to leave their country. According to the leader of the organization, Alexander Azarov, some groups of Belarusians have been training for several months.
"I call it a militant diaspora. Our strength is growing every day," said one of the instructors, a former soldier with the call sign Shpak.
Before that, guerrillas affiliated with BYPOL had already conducted several successful operations in Belarus. In particular, after the start of russia's invasion of Ukraine, they organized sabotage on railways used by russian troops.
In February of this year, the organization claimed responsibility for blowing up a russian A-50 reconnaissance aircraft at the airport near Minsk using two drones.
In Belarus, BYPOL was recognized as an "extremist organization".
"We tried to go the peaceful way. But the state has never won its freedom without blood," explained his decision to join the BYPOL training camp a 60-year-old electrician, who received the call sign Grandfather.
"My daughter does not know I am here. I told her I was going to play paintball. But in fact, I came here to prepare for the battle for Belarus," said a 42-year-old volunteer with the call sign Predator.
The participants of the training are preparing for the day, which they call "Time X" when they will return to Belarus to fight the regime. This moment may come "when russia leaves Belarus," said another Belarusian.
Mass protests in Belarus began on August 9, 2020. They were caused by the Lukashenka regime's falsification of the presidential election results.
Thousands of Belarusians had to leave their country under the threat of repression.
In early June, Lukashenka said that Western countries were training "members of illegal armed groups" in Poland, Lithuania, and Ukraine to overthrow him. He also noted that there are attempts to create "sleeper extremist cells" in Belarus itself.