Belarusians fighting for Ukraine seek refuge in EU

Viktor, who asked DW not to publish his real name, enlisted in 2022 to fight against Russia's war of aggression and spent a year serving in the Ukrainian army.

Afterwards, he headed to Poland, where he received medical treatment for a wound. Once in Warsaw, he applied for asylum as he was threatened with prosecution in his native Belarus for taking part in the war.

As a former manager of a Belarusian company, he expected to quickly find a job with a Ukrainian company in Poland, due to his involvement in the war. However, recruitment agencies turned him down, citing his Belarusian citizenship. They also feared Viktor could develop post-traumatic stress disorder.

"They also told me that there were Ukrainians in the company who hadn't fought and that if I was hired, they would feel ashamed or uncomfortable around me," Viktor told DW. "In short, they were worried about the atmosphere in the team."

Viktor's savings ran out after a few months, and so he decided to get a job in a car repair shop. Two months later, he was offered a position by his former Belarusian company to continue working for them, but from Poland.

However, not all former combatants have managed to reintegrate into civilian life. This has been particularly true for young veterans who went to war without any professional job training, Viktor said.

"They now consider whether they should find work as courier drivers or construction workers," he said. "But then they ask themselves — what did they fight for, to sit on a bike for 12 hours?"

He knows people whose mental health problems have led to homelessness, and even suicide.

Unable to stay in Ukraine

Anton from Belarus, who also asked DW not to publish his real name, joined the Ukrainian armed forces in the very first month of the war in early 2022.

The former company manager spent two years at the front, where he suffered head injuries and other wounds.

Today, the 29-year-old lives in Warsaw where he has been waiting for an asylum decision for nine months.

"I left the Ukrainian army because I lost my motivation," he told DW.

Initially, he said, he wanted to stay in Ukraine, but there was no prospect of a residence permit.

"I realized that it was unrealistic for me to get a legal status, as even men who have Ukrainian wives were turned down," said Anton, who has not yet found a permanent job in Poland.

"War is not the best time for life and development, but I'm still a young man," he added.

Military or humanitarian affair?

According to Andrei Kushnerov, the founder of the veterans' organization Association of Belarusian Volunteers, most Belarusians are denied permission to stay in Ukraine after leaving the army because they do not meet the requirements for a residence permit.

Some of them had expired Belarusian passports and were unable to apply for new ones, Kushnerov told DW. "Ukraine does not issue any papers," he explained.

As a result, many of the veterans relocate to an EU country, usually Poland, as this is their first country of entry into the European Union under the Dublin Agreement, where they can receive asylum.

"Those who go to Lithuania have often lived there before Russia's all-out war against Ukraine," said Aleksandr Klochko, an activist and former Belarusian volunteer.

Klochko thinks Belarus' civil society needs to show more support for these veterans.

"Yet, once a case has anything to do with the military, there is often reluctance to deal with it," he said, adding that this attitude can also have consequences for the family members of former combatants.

"In what way can the family of a fallen Belarusian volunteer be considered a military matter?" the activist said.

'Lack of funding' to help veterans

The Lanka Rehabilitation Center, which was founded by Belarusian activist Tatiana Gazuro-Yavorskaya, helps former Belarusian volunteers in Ukraine.

However, there is no comparable initiative in the EU, said Kushnerov.

"We need a systematic job creation scheme for hundreds of people, but there is a lack of funding," he explained.

His veterans' organization, the Association of Belarusian Volunteers, is registered in Poland. It was set up in 2023 by Belarusian volunteers. According to Kushnerov, it includes as many as 200 fighters, both former and active.

However, the association has not yet been able to gain financial support from other veterans' groups in the EU.

Meanwhile, the activists have found psychologists who are available to take care of Belarusian veterans and their families on a voluntary basis. 

Kushnerov estimates that around 30% of the veterans have problems integrating into civilian life. In most cases, they need to retrain as they are no longer able to carry out their former profession due to the consequences of the war.

New law offers permits

Vadzim Kabanchuk, responsible for defense and national security for Belarus' opposition-leader-in-exile Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, agrees that there is a need to help those affected.

"If these are our Belarusian veterans, then the diaspora must bear responsibility for them, because today they are defending the honor of the Belarusian people in the eyes of the Ukrainians," he told DW.

According to Kabanchuk, hundreds of Belarusians are affected. "We've had many meetings with parliamentarians, human rights activists and Ukrainian authorities. Laws have been passed to facilitate legalization, obtaining papers and citizenship, as well as obtaining officer ranks for further military service," he said.

According to a new law that came into effect in Ukraine on November 24 "on the legal status of foreigners and stateless persons participating in the defense of the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine," non-Ukrainians who fight for Ukraine will be able to obtain a residence permit, even if their passports have expired.

Within a year of martial law being lifted, Russians and Belarusians who obtained a Ukrainian passport in this way will have to renounce their initial citizenship.

This article was originally written in Russian.