Protests in Belarus: Maria Kolesnikova ‘detained on the border with Ukraine’

A Belarusian opposition leader was reportedly detained at the border with Ukraine the day after she disappeared.

State media report that Maria Kolesnikova was detained at the border early Tuesday morning.

It comes the day after witnesses reportedly saw a masked man put her into a minibus.

She is one of three women who joined forces to challenge President Alexander Lukashenko in the August elections.

Lukashenko has ruled his country since 1994. He has accused the Western powers of interference.

But he has been supported by President Vladimir Putin of Russia and is expected to visit Moscow “in the next few days.”

There are conflicting reports on the whereabouts of the opposition figure.

A Belarusian border official said Ms. Kolesnikova was detained at the border with Ukraine early Tuesday. Two other members of the opposition, Anton Rodnenkov and Ivan Kravtsov, crossed the border.

All three were in a BMW, the official said. At the junction, the car “accelerated sharply” and Ms. Kolesnikova “found herself outside the vehicle”. The official said she was “expelled” and continued to advance towards Ukraine.

Ukrainian border service sources have confirmed that only the two men had arrived and that both had been detained while their fate was being decided.

On Monday, eyewitnesses saw masked men grab Ms. Kolesnikova on the street in central Belarus and push her into a minibus.

The Coordination Council, a body created by the opposition to oversee a transfer of power after the disputed elections, later said it had no idea of ​​his whereabouts. He added that Press Secretary Rodnenkov and Executive Secretary Kravtsov had also disappeared.

The Interior Ministry said it had no information about the arrest of any of the council members.

Ms. Kolesnikova is the last of three women who joined forces against Mr. Lukashenko to remain inside Belarus. Veronika Tsepkalo and presidential candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya left the country shortly after the vote.

Ms. Tikhanovskaya said that the latest arrests were an attempt to disrupt the work of the Coordination Council. “The more they try to scare us, the more people will take to the streets,” he said in a statement from Lithuania.

“I am the only one of the three who is still here,” Kolesnikova told BBC Russian in an interview last month. “To understand exactly what is going on, you really have to be here.”

Ms. Kolesnikova described the recent demonstrations as “not a struggle for power” but as “a struggle for human dignity and self-respect”. She said that she and her team had decided not to use bodyguards.

“No number of guards would be of use if a bus full of riot police stopped us,” he said. “We all know what a police state is capable of.”

Another activist, Olga Kovalkova, announced on Saturday that she had fled to Poland amid threats of prison.