Kalinouski Regiment Fighter Dzianis Urbanovich: We Do Not Recognize Tsikhanouskaya And All These ‘Cabinets’

• 28.06.2023, 11:07

Volunteers have a plan to liberate Belarus.

Member of the Young Front and volunteer Dzianis Urbanovich was wounded severely many times. He survived a clinical death once. A large-calibre projectile strike caused a partial collapse of a building covering his group in a battle in mid-May. Four of Dzinis' brothers-in-arms died, but he survived. The man soon came back to the front and dreamed of liberating Belarus after the victory of Ukraine in the war. The Zerkalo website talked with the fighter and the head of the Young Front about some of the last battles for Bakhmut before it was completely captured by Russia, about the attitude of the opposition activist towards the democratic forces and about the forceful scenario for overthrowing the dictatorship in Belarus.

“It feels like I was neither in Bakhmut nor on the Earth: it was impossible to dig a trench because there were two or three layers of corpses around”

– How are you feeling after being wounded?

– I don’t really want to talk about it, but the wound was severe - an open head injury. Before that, there were four more blast injuries, one was very severe, I had split my ear drum a year ago when an explosion shook my head strongly.

This time we were on the outskirts of Bakhmut, the Russians were trying to capture the last parts of the city. We were ordered to go deeper. We moved forward, went forward through the destroyed houses. They took a point - a house. Ahead, the Russians had already stepped forward - without body armour, just in uniform with machine guns. A battle began, we destroyed them, but we had to stay in that place. A tank was attacking us. We took up all-round defence until the house caught fire. A fire started, and we didn’t even know how to get out of there, because the bastards in front and to the right couldn’t get who and where was. The last thing that our commander Miraslau Lazouski told me on the radio was: “Don't go forward, there is a cluster of Russians. Hold on. God help you." He has never been talking like that. I addressed my fellows and said: “Something strange is going on. It seems we are in trouble.”

We retreated 100 meters back and ran in small groups to another house, which became the grave for our guys. The Russians entered this private sector, and we were sitting in a high-rise building across the road. They fired back on us with aviation, tanks, automatic grenade launchers, mortars and large-caliber rifles. Something strong hit this building and two floors collapsed on us. I only remember a flash and how a stove fell on me, but there was a sofa and a wall nearby - and, as always, I was a little lucky: it only flunked my legs and hit me on the head. My fellows nearby were killed by a 16-ton slab. Someone died immediately, someone was strongly injured. I don’t remember how, but I managed to get out, I tried to take someone else out ... Everyone who was near me fell screaming, there was smoke all around, everything was on fire, shooting. Paramedics evacuated me.

The fight was intense 24/7, but I remember it like it happened in one minute. I can’t describe the feeling when a wounded person lies next to you, next to him are still wounded, who themselves provided assistance. Then dead, more dead. Everything is on fire, you can't get up, somewhere around 30 Ukrainians are walking with torn-off arms, ears, and damaged upper parts of their bodies - covered in blood, like zombies. It's a real hell, I'd say. I have never seen things like that. I had the feeling that I was not even in Bakhmut, or on Earth - as if I got into another world, where people are just killing everyone, and we are killing.

I’m feeling good now. It was really harder psychologically than physically because we’ve lost our commander Miraslau Lazouski and four other fighters from my group, with whom I have been fighting for more than a year, who died before my eyes. I am preparing to return to the front and carry out combat missions.

– Tell us please, how you survived the loss of your close fellows? Usually, the war is shown as a matter of adult and serious men, there is no place for emotions.

– It's hard because we made plans for the future, the guys were young, and someone wanted to join the Young Front. We planned to return to Belarus, by the way, an hour before their death, we discussed who and where would go after the battle for Bakhmut, when it would be possible to rest for a week. No one thought of such developments. Now I have nothing to say. We will avenge them, and do our best for what they fought for.

It feels like a kind of emotional trauma because Lazouski died too. It's one thing when you lose one or two people, another - four at once, half of the group, and also the commander. All I can say is that they are heroes. Those guys had experience in paramedicine and could even do surgery on the spot, they saved so many lives!

I never thought that it would be the last one for me when starting a mission. I was already dying, I had a bullet wound - it broke my sternum, tore my liver and my lung. I suffered a clinical death, or whatever it was ... my heart stopped - Sever [Anastasia Sever Mahamet. - Ed.] evacuated me. After that, it was a little scary, I lay for two days and thought: “Wow, you really survived!” I spoke with one priest, he said: "If you survived four times, you will live long."

– How do you explain this to yourself: is something protecting you or it’s just about your luck?

– I am a Christian, I believe in Jesus Christ. Although I said (maybe wrong) that it would be better to kill me. I'm just a commander leading the process, but future doctors died there, those who could save lives in the future. But, you see, the Lord took them away, and decided to leave me and a few other guys. We must understand that the work that is in heaven is the most important and significant. Death is just a transition. I hope that we will all live, maybe I will return to Belarus. You need to understand that today we are talking, and tomorrow we may not talk anymore ... But I am 100% sure that the Lord decides both history and the life of a person, with no distinguishing people.

– When you are sitting in these terrible conditions near Bakhmut, and you can be targeted by any strike, do not you think “Why God allows this?” All these tragedies on the battlefield and the sufferings of civilians under missile attacks.

– It’s complicated... The devil also has influence: casinos, brothels, vodka and so on. And the Lord inspired man to open churches, spread the word of God. All this junction took place on Earth. God challenges everyone with trials and waits for that person in the Kremlin or this nation to say: “Ukrainians, forgive us for the deaths and murders.” When they stop the war, withdraw the troops, repair everything that they have destroyed, this will be the work of God. This is what God is counting on. But when a person decides: "Yes, I will continue to fight, we are Russians - God is with us" - this is from the evil one. Therefore, there are people like us, there is a strong Ukrainian nation that believes in God and fights for its family, home, and language. God still tries to rely on a person so that he will come to the senses.

You can’t dig a trench, because two or three layers of corpses are lying around, and it’s generally not clear who are Russians and who are Ukrainians there - but they are humans, Christians. You are looking at all these: What did we fight for? The Lord makes you (and your enemy) stand and think. God has plans for this war and there is still a chance for all nations to think: do we, gentlemen, need all this? These destroyed cities, leveled to the ground, murdered children and women, missile attacks, threats to each other. It's just because no one gets it.

“The security service officers, who come to my father all the time, understand that they will pay for it.”

– Is it possible to return Bakhmut to Ukraine in the near future?

– I'm on treatment and don't have any operational information right now. Maybe we will return it. Everything that Russia took away will be returned to Ukraine. I don't know how long it will take - a year or two. But Bakhmut is now a huge, huge grave. There is Kurapaty near Minsk, where the Belarusian intelligentsia was shot to death, they were always called a place of repentance, the heart of Belarus. Bakhmut is also a place of repentance, a point that should show the Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Russian nations what war is. A year ago we drove through it to Sievierodonetsk, it was a joyful city, they drank coffee there. And what it is like now - look at the photos and aerial footage.

I don’t know how it will be, but I would like what happened in Bakhmut, Soledar, Vuhledar to become a lesson for future generations and for the Russians who bear this grief. By the way, while we were there, locals were still hiding in the cellars. It was almost the end for the city, and they were still sitting there with some kind of hope. I don’t know what happened to them next, because then the Russians occupied these places. They most likely killed them - as far as I know from the intercepts, they had an order to kill everyone.

– Please tell us about your family. How long has it been since you last saw your father?

— My father is 74 years old. I have brothers and a sister. I haven't seen them since 2021, when I left. It so happened that we did not communicate for a long time and talked after the KGB officers released this incomprehensible video with him. He always said that Russia goes along with war, even in those years when it was just born in the 90s. He was forced to make this video, he is held hostage. The special services are using him to force me to either lay down my arms or leave somewhere. They even want me to come back to my homeland - supposedly they will “forgive” me there, they will give me ten years maybe.

Most importantly, my family does not change their views. What is said on camera is just for the camera. The security services constantly come to my father but they understand that they will have to answer for everything, and this is a matter of time: there has never been a single dictator and accomplices who did not pay for their crimes. God is making history.

– What about the Young Front, do you lead the organization?

– We are just about to hold a congress, but we don’t know how to do it properly, because many Young Front members are in prison, some (more than a dozen) are in the Volat battalion. I am still the head of the organization, but we will make changes maybe closer to the autumn at the congress. I will already be 34 years old, I do not fit the Charter as a leader. There are young guys - real fighters and heroes who can take this post. I think in a month and a half you will know the name of this person. We cannot engage in politics now, because we are at the front, but I am negotiating with various politicians and prominent figures. We met with Natallia Radzina, and we had a private conversation with an advisor to Zelensky's office. The main issue is the war, but what will happen next, in Belarus, how will we go there and who will help us - this is also being developed.

“Tsikhanouskaya had contacts with the KGB. Whether Podolyak announced it or not ... It does not matter since I still know it”

– Do you have contact with the Belarusian democratic forces?

– I’ll tell you right away that we don’t support and don’t recognize Tsikhanouskaya and these cabinets. I have already heard enough: “Putin is wise”, “Whose Crimea is?” - “He was a Russian” ... I know Siarhei Tsikhanouski even before all these events. He came to us when we organized actions against integration [with Russia] in 2019. Then he somehow got involved with Mikalai Statkevich, Pavel Seviarynets, we had some conversations with him, and I noticed such a Russian taint on him. He refused to cover the actions in Minsk due to the fact that there were posters with Maskali [catch-all the Russians term identifying followers of the Kremlin’s ideas - Ed.] words, Russians were called like that.

Time has passed, and Mrs. [Sviatlana] Tsikhanouskaya came out - nothing has changed. This is a person who will never recognize the Belarusian language in her life. She lived all her life, and questions of politics, nationalization, language did not bother her. As she herself said: “I don’t know the Belarusian language, but I’ll try. I don't plan to study in the future. She will not speak Belarusian.

– Tsikhanouskaya speaks Belarusian and publishes video messages.

– First, she speaks because it is necessary. Secondly, we have two state languages according to the Constitution, and we, the Young Front, have always strived to remove the Russian language. Tsikhanouskaya said: “There is no need to remove the Russian language, we have a lot of people who speak Russian!” This phrase is enough.

I also spoke with [Viktar] Babaryka - he is really a Russian [It’s about his political views. - Ed.], He hated Kastus Kalinouski. And as soon as the cameras turned on, he was loving Belarus, March 25 and Kalinouski. Therefore, all these transitional offices with their various agents are incomprehensible, plus the Ukrainian Defence Intelligence confirmed that Tsikhanouskaya had contacts with the KGB. I personally saw this operational data, or whatever it is called. I know this from other sources, plus I serve in intelligence. That's enough for me.

– The Ukrainian Defence Intelligence did not officially make such statements. Zerkalo often communicates with Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the Office of the President of Ukraine, he also did not make such statements about Tsikhanouskaya. Do you have proof?

– I don’t remember, it was about a year ago, but there was information about the cooperation. Look, whether Podolyak announced it or not ... It does not matter since I still know it. I know about Siarhei Tsikhanouski more than you, journalists, all together. And I know this Russian taint like his wife has. Babaryka, Mr and Mrs Tikhanouski - they will all come to prison together with Prigozhin. You are not to ask these leading questions: Who? Whom? How? There is a lot of attention to Tsikhanouskaya. Learn the language, fight for Belarus, that's all. Tsikhanouskaya is not Belarus. Pazniak said it. Zianon Stanislavavich described all this.

There are also former police officers in BYPOL - they imprisoned so many of our brothers-in-arms that there is no forgiveness for them. I am talking to people like Azarou. I understood that the elections would end in complete shit in the summer of 2020, when I was released after a day, because Tsikhanouskaya, Tsapkala and Kalesnikava would prevent the situation from turning a little in the other direction: peaceful protest, waving flowers, betraying most of the active people - those who were ready to go to the square and throw stones.

They fulfilled their function, made a performance that allegedly Yarmoshyna detained Tsikhanouskaya in the Central Elections Committee buildings. Believe me, if Lukashenka really needed to imprison her, she would have been jailed like her husband. But the special services were counting on her, so no one would ever put her in jail in her life. She was supposed to be sent to Lithuania, this was prepared in advance, we knew this two months before August 9th. However, the Belarusian people for some reason, as in 1994, decided differently: it was like: “There is Lukashenka, let's vote for him” and then “We must vote for Sviatlana Heorhieuna, she shook the regime. We have nothing to do with the Belarusian language and anything else.” Tsikhanouskaya, if she had really won the elections, would have brought Belarus to Russia, as Lukashenka did.

– Tikhanovskaya stated that she was not going to lead the country, but to hold new elections. The second point: where did you get the information about the preparation of her departure to Lithuania? If she was recruited, as you say, why did she create so many problems for the authorities in Belarus after her departure?

– You have not fully heard me out. Firstly, Lukashenka also did not declare that he would lead the country for 28 years. Do not forget that the FSB worked on several fronts. If something went wrong with Tsikhanouskaya, then Babaryka would appear, and she would say that he is a good candidate. Kalesnikava was also nearby to direct her [Tsikhanouskaya] as they want to. There was also Tsapkala - he is even worse than both of them.

You, my dear Belarusians, must understand that Russia will never let Belarus out of its sight and will not allow a person who is nationally conscious or who wants us to join Europe to become a president. Neither Babaryka and Tsapkala nor Tsikhanouskaya were like this and did not want to join Europe. Their policy is a threat to independent Belarus. Maybe they are smart people, they know their business, but I do not see them as the leaders of the nation. Such "street soldiers" - Seviarynets, Dashkevich - they were imprisoned immediately and quickly. Well, Tsikhanouski also was imprisoned, because then he really posed a threat, he gathered a lot of people - no further questions.

And believe me, if Lukashenka dies, most likely Viktar Babaryka will become “Jesus Christ” and will say: “All political prisoners liberated thanks to the Russians.” I considered this option even before the war, but now it would be stupid for the Russian Federation - the Belarusians may understand this in the wrong way: there is a war going on, and here the Russians are letting out political prisoners.

If Lukashenka dies and Viktar Lukashenka signs the 31st map, Belarus will become a part of Russia. And here is the question to the people, to the Transitional Cabinet, to everyone: How are we going to rescue the country? Lukashenka can still blurt out something about Russia, but his sons and his junta, they can't. They are like grey mice, it is easier for them to integrate so that they have the same laws, language, currency - the national question in Belarus will be really closed.

– Do you see that Tsikhanouskaya speaks out against Putin and the Russian aggression, and makes it clear that we are not on the same way with Russia? And if Babaryka, as you say, walks free and thanks the Kremlin for help, this will mean that he supports the war. It is hard to imagine, besides, the Belarusians will condemn him.

– The Ukrainian people are really fighting the Russian aggression at the front. It is not a struggle when holding some kind of round tables in Europe. Well, yes, she spoke out against it. I can also say against, I can say for. Lukashenka also criticized Putin - remember two months ago when he said: "The counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine will finish Russia's." Whatever Tsikhanouskaya says, the initial stage is important for me. Why didn't Pazniak, Seviarynets, Dashkevich, Statkevich start like this?

I was at a meeting with the leadership of Ukraine, and they put it clear that no one would talk to Tsikhanouskaya, because she is a special kind of person. Our task is to build an independent Belarusian army with national ideas and liberate Belarus. With Tsikhanouskaya and the entire Transitional Cabinet, we will not really do anything. I'll tell you more: this Transitional Cabinet won't declare Belarus even in a hundred years. What has the BDR Rada, the exiled government, done for Belarus and the Belarusian people over the past 20 years? They did damn nothing, there was no active action on their side. They existed in Canada like a lying stone, and that's it. Likewise, the Coordination Council will be in Lithuania for 20 years, and that's it.

I respect Zainon Stanislavavich Pazniak, but his party is just there. I remember the European Belarus very well – Maksim Viniarski, Dzmitry Dashkevich, Yauhen Afnahel. They did something, they informed people that Lukashenka and Russia are evil. Not for 10.000 km in America, but in Belarus. These people are of great value to me and respect them.

– Do you understand that any person who opposes the authorities can now only be behind bars in the country? You also left the country.

– I do not blame those who left in 2020: there were massive repressions, long sentence terms. I condemn those who left 20 years ago and do not even know what is going on in Belarus really, but declare themselves. I left in 2021 because I was facing a 20-year sentence. I was persuaded for a long time by my relatives and brothers. And I did not leave alone - we left together with the members of the Young Front.

– Do you have something against the Belarusians because in 2020 many people wanted peaceful protests? You told us about “delicate flowers”.

– I can get it, but Belarusians could act more drastically. Not a single dictatorial regime fell after peaceful elections - everything was always decided through blood and earth. Let's take the example of Ukraine - if at one time its own Tsikhanouskaya appeared there, Ukraine would already have the Russian flag. And the nationalists, thanks to their radical ways of fighting against the Yanukovych regime, clung tightly to their freedom and their choice. This nation deserves a lot. No one clung to freedom in our country. Our people are still wearing slave collars, they went - they threw a flower.

– People didn't want blood.

– Look, it’s too loud. There was blood, we had it [the protesters suffered Ed.]. I will tell you that if something had gone wrong in Belarus then, then these Arkharovites [rogue police officers - Ed.], who are now running around Ukrainian soil, would have been running around Belarus. And there they would no longer count 10, 20, 30 - they would count in a completely different way. Fire and sword is the only way to solve the problem.

– Now the issue of the liberation of Belarus after the victory of Ukraine is being discussed a lot. What do you think how will it look like?

– To be honest, I have not even thought about what liberation will look like. Let's first resolve the issue in Ukraine, then we will deal with Belarus. I imagined it differently, the Young Front members did the same. Frankly speaking, we did not come to the same opinion. We have a plan for the liberation of Belarus (I will not voice it), but we have not worked out how it will all look like. There are points that we can consider, for example, the death of Lukashenka, or the appointment of Kachanava, but now it is difficult to say. Still, it is possible if the Belarusian people want to be liberated and ready to do everything possible for this.

– The Kalinouski Regiment declared its political ambitions. Belarusians reacted to this in different ways, some said that the military should be engaged in war, and politicians in politics. How do you feel about the option of the military coming to power in Belarus?

– I would like to correct you a bit: the military has a charter and an oath, but we are volunteers. Yes, we have our structure, we are following rules, there are some rules, but in a slightly different way. As for the regiment and its political ambitions... Well, I think that war is war and politics is politics. I am not engaged in the administration [of the Young Front. - Ed.]. I have no time for it really. I am either in Bakhmut, or in other locations where I need, let's say, to work with personnel, weapons, and operations from morning till evening. There is no time for politics at all. If I start doing it, combat performance will suffer. The regiment's command is not fighting, the Headquarters I mean, the rest of the Kalinovites are at war.