Volha Takarchuk shared dramatic details of her escape from Belarus

Volha Takarchuk. Video screenshot: elsat_life / YouTube

Before the events of 2020, Volha Takarchuk worked as a designer. In August of that year, she started participating in protests and actively maintained her blog, where she expressed her views on the situation in the country. Her page had about 37,000 subscribers.

Volha was apprehended on May 19, 2021. She was accused of participating in protests, insulting a judge, and defamation. Volha was released in June 2022, having fully served her sentence of one and a half years in a penal colony. After her release, she decided to remain in Belarus.

On January 23, 2024, KGB officers came to her and took her for questioning regarding the INeedHelp case. On the same day, the blogger's mother was also arrested. Realizing that she might also be arrested, Takarchuk left Belarus on January 27, 2024, together with her two children and father.

Volha shared the details of her escape on the Belsat program "Just a question for me."

According to Volha, on the eve of their escape, she and her children were at an acquaintance's place, as she believed it was unsafe to stay at home. Only the most necessary items, which fit into a few backpacks, were brought to her from home.

Volha's father also joined them. The family understood that after his wife's detention, he could also face persecution, so he also left his apartment, taking only one bag with him.

Throughout this time, Volha maintained contact with representatives of "Bysol," who organized the evacuation. As the woman recalls, instructions were given to her step by step and only at the last moment. No details were reported in advance for security reasons. When she completed one task, she received the next one.

"We booked tickets to Moscow, got on a shuttle bus, and went to Moscow. We stayed in one apartment, then moved to another. We didn't sleep that night, I remember. My dad was in a state of shock, and he was like a child. He didn't understand anything that was happening. You'd tell him something, and he'd just say, 'Ah...' and that was it.

He was lost in his thoughts, and I understood that I needed to feed the children, feed my dad, and I was constantly in touch, with a ton of instructions. And you realize that no one will do it for you, no one will help you, dad is not a helper for you, dad is a third child," Volha recounts.

The initial plan was for her father and the children to fly to Georgia, while Volha herself would leave Russia by a different route.

However, a problem arose: she was on the list of Belarusian citizens prohibited from leaving the country.

Threats at Sheremetyevo

Volha was detained at Sheremetyevo airport. According to her, FSB officers initially took her to an official office and interrogated her throughout the night. Takarchuk did not elaborate in the interview on what exactly they were interested in, but she noted that after many hours of interrogation, an administrative protocol was drawn up against her for an attempt to illegally cross the border. "Bysol" immediately paid the fine for it, but the problems did not end there.

After that, Volha remained practically detained at the airport for a long time, unable to leave the waiting area before boarding. At some point, she was informed that a criminal case might be opened against her.

According to the woman, her father and children returned to the apartment in Moscow and waited for further instructions.

After some time, Volha was unexpectedly informed that there would be no criminal case and that her passport would be returned.

"An hour passes, two, three, five hours – the passport isn't returned. And I start screaming. I say: 'You are illegally detaining me! There is nothing against me. You haven't opened a criminal case. I've paid the administrative fine. From this moment, on what grounds are you holding my passport? On what? You just stole my passport, and took me hostage here in Sheremetyevo. At the same time, you are violating my rights. I haven't eaten for a day, haven't slept for a day. The only thing I can do is go to the toilet and smoke in that toilet.' (...) I'm also in contact with some lawyer, I'm consulting with him," Volha recounts emotionally.

At a certain point, the situation escalated again:

"Some aunt comes and starts a new criminal case against me. I don't even remember what for. I just look at her and say: 'Are you kidding me? You're just inventing this criminal case now. You are violating the law now. (...) Where is my passport anyway, where is everything?' She turns to me and says: 'Where do you want to fly?' I say: 'To such and such a country.' She says: 'Okay, buy tickets and you'll fly.'"

While waiting for the documents to be processed, Volha was escorted to eat. The man accompanying her was interested in the Belarusian situation. According to Volha, she told him about her arrest and her mother's detention. Her interlocutor, she said, showed understanding towards her.

Return to Minsk

However, everything soon changed again. During the conversation, the escort received a phone call and then informed her that instead of another country, Volha would fly to Minsk.

"The whole dangerous criminal Olya Takarchuk, who wanted to trick all of Sheremetyevo, is put in a car and taken to the plane. There he, this guy, goes up with me, so that, God forbid, I don't escape from the ramp.

And the flight attendants decided that I was a very important guest. Well, since I was brought by a separate car. Only on the plane, when it was said not to let me out, was my passport returned to me.

The flight attendants are fawning over me: "Tea, coffee, sandwiches? Everything is free, what do you want?" And I want nothing. I look out the window, my children before my eyes. And I just burst into tears," Volha recounts.

According to Takarchuk, the airport employee who accompanied her before the flight assured her that no information had been passed to Minsk, as the incident was considered an internal Sheremetyevo matter. But she couldn't fully believe these words.

"I'm in touch with my relatives who are meeting me there with a friend. And they were supposed to text me: one SMS if there were security forces, another if there weren't. (...) At the time, we thought it would help me somehow. (...)

I receive an SMS, when we've already landed, that there's no one, that it's empty. I calm down, just run out. It's, you know, like those moments in detective films, when an acquaintance just drives up, opens the car, and I just fly into it."

After the forced return, according to Takarchuk, she spent another day in Minsk. Her father and children were already in Georgia at that time. Volha found the strength to go into her apartment, calmly pack her things, and say goodbye to her cat, who had lived with her for 20 years. The animal died after her departure — in the summer of 2025.

The next night, Takarchuk again headed to Moscow. The flight was from a different airport. The blogger does not reveal how she managed to get to Lithuania.

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