In an interview with BBC journalist Steven Rosenberg on October 23, Aleksandr Lukashenko mentioned Belarusian truck drivers who allegedly died in Ukraine at the beginning of the full-scale war. Here is what he stated:
“Ukraine has acted hostile towards Belarus. They imposed sanctions against us before the Anglo-Saxons did. <...> They seized 75 trucks along with the people. They behaved like bandits. Did you know, I had to conduct a special operation to free the guys they arrested? We freed them, but five people were killed. And they were dismembered so we wouldn’t understand how they died.”
This refers to the case when Belarusian drivers appeared to be stuck in Ukraine at the time of Russia’s full-scale invasion. Two and a half years ago, Lukashenko had mentioned that only two drivers were involved, stating, “Unfortunately, as I know, two people did not manage to return home. They were simply brazenly killed by Ukrainians.”
On March 17, 2022, Belarusian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Anatoly Glaz reported the deaths of the two drivers: “On March 10 of this year, the Ministry received and confirmed tragic information about the deaths of two of our citizens in the city of Korosten, Zhytomyr region, Ukraine. These were truck drivers who could not leave the conflict zone and were forced to remain in their vehicles, awaiting a chance to return to Belarus.”
On the day the truck drivers died, March 10, 2022, Korosten’s mayor, Volodymyr Moskalenko, said the men had died from serious burns caused by the Russian shelling of the city.
“Two people in the hospital had really bad burns that they couldn’t survive. So, right now, it’s basically three people who are dead. Two of them were Belarusians just sitting in their trucks, waiting to leave. They had no idea that Russian jets were going to bomb the city from Belarusian airfields,” Moskalenko said.
On October 23, 2024, in response to Lukashenko’s claims, former Ukrainian ambassador to Belarus Igor Kizim commented, “What’s most interesting in these ‘explanations’ is the increasing number of Belarusians that were ‘dismembered.’ In previous interviews, I recall it was two, and now it’s five. What will it be next?”