To avoid prison in Russia for drugs, a young informer from Ashmyany signed up for the front. And perished

Hleb Yemialyanenkau was born in 1998 in Ashmyany into a large family. His parents moved to Minsk when he was still young. He studied at Minsk school No. 76. But later he entered the Ashmyany Agricultural College. 

On the verge of adulthood, Hleb, according to Belpol data, was caught with drugs — in 2016, he was detained with 0.2 grams of amphetamine, for which the young man received three years of restricted freedom (a form of probation).

However, Yemialyanenkau committed a more regrettable act in 2020 — he called 102 to report that "white-red-white flags were hung in the Almi store on the first floor at the hookah sales point." How many people were detained and jailed for days as a result of Yemialyanenkau's report remains unknown.

Back in 2019, the young man registered as an individual entrepreneur — he intended to engage in building cleaning.

Павялічыць

However, Hleb soon left his homeland and went to seek money in Russia. The young man did not get an official job but fell for an advertisement seen in the "Part-time work St. Petersburg" community about the need for a "helper." The story was in February 2024.

An anonymous employer offered Hleb to transport parcels over long distances for payment in cryptocurrency. 

Hleb immediately understood everything without further explanation: he sent a selfie with his passport to the curator, installed a VPN for confidential future correspondence, a tracker, and set up a crypto wallet. He began digging up "parcels" from under the snow in the forest and transporting them to other areas.

However, Hleb did not have his own car — for his trips, he used taxis and the BlaBlaCar ride-sharing service. 

During one such trip — it's not ruled out, by a tip from an attentive driver — Hleb was arrested. The traffic police stopped the car and asked Hleb to state what was inside the strange sealed box he was carrying. The young man got nervous and blurted out that there were pills inside.

What kind of pills? He couldn't explain precisely, so the police checked themselves — 700 grams of ecstasy pills, over a thousand pieces. 

For transporting drugs in a particularly large amount, Hleb was sent for eight years to a strict-regime penal colony, among repeat offenders. Even a first-time convict can end up there in Russia, simply due to the severity of the charge. 

But the young man could not endure long in the Russian colony and decided to take a risk by enlisting in the Russian army. Russian authorities consistently worsen detention conditions and give prisoners the illusion of quick freedom through participation in the war against Ukraine — this is a widespread phenomenon. Belarusian authorities do not in any way prevent Russia from recruiting their citizens to guaranteed death.

And so Hleb, like the absolute majority, was unlucky — instead of quick freedom, he disappeared without a trace almost immediately after being sent to the front.

Hleb Yemialyanenkau last contacted his relatives on May 10, 2026, from the Kharkiv direction. He never appeared in Ukrainian captivity, but the Belarusian's body has not yet been found.

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