Posted on 04/05/2022 9:23:57 PM PDT by Zhang Fei
KYIV — For more than a decade, Pavel Kulazhanka has sought to overthrow the authoritarian regime of Aleksandr Lukashenko in his native Belarus.
First, it was simple street protests. Then, sabotaging train lines and bombing military outposts. Eventually, he had to flee — and landed in New York City where he became a mixed martial arts fighter.
But he thinks the best shot yet at toppling Lukashenko — and Russian President Vladimir Putin, without whose support many in Belarus think Lukashenko would quickly fall — has come with the war in Ukraine.
He is one of hundreds of Belarusians who have joined the fight here, inspired by their neighbor’s battlefield successes and determined to carry that momentum back into Belarus to end Lukashenko’s 28-year rule.
Many of them have joined the “Kastus Kalinouski Battalion,” named after the leader of Belarus’s insurrection against Russia in the 1860s. It is made up of Belarusians taking advantage of Ukraine’s wartime decision to allow foreigners to serve in the ranks of its armed forces, though not as officers. A dozen recruits interviewed by The Washington Post described their sense of common cause between Ukraine and Belarus’s pro-democracy movements.
“Life is about leaps of faith,” Kulazhanka said during a break this week from training with an AK-47 assault rifle in a western suburb of Kyiv. Around him, the sound of distant artillery fire rumbled through the air like a thunderstorm. “Fighting Lukashenko was one. Fleeing Belarus was another. Throwing away my life in America was one more. And fighting here, we are making the biggest one of all.”
While Lukashenko’s military has not yet joined Putin’s in Ukraine, Russian soldiers have been based in Belarus since before the war began and launched their main ground offensive on Kyiv and northern Ukraine from there.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Ukraine ping
Revolutionaries who are persona non grata or not eligible for military enlistment in their homelands have typically sought military training and experience by volunteering for service in foreign armies at war. When Israel fought the 1948 Arab-Israeli War against a coalition of Arab armies, its ranks were filled with veterans of a wide array of European armies who had gathered considerable experience in WWII.
After a lot of blustering and talk before and soon after the invasion, Lukashenko has been very reserved for the past few weeks.
“When Israel fought the 1948 Arab-Israeli War against a coalition of Arab armies, its ranks were filled with veterans of a wide array of European armies who had gathered considerable experience in WWII.”
This is absolutely true —
And their experience, (and Gods providential hand), brought devastation to much larger, and more well equipped quasi “Arab League” assault on Israel.
I sincerely hope that the people of Belarus can use this opportunity to gain their own freedom.
Agree.
Governor Tarkin: Princess Leia, before your execution, I’d like you to join me for a ceremony that will make this battle station operational. No star system will dare oppose the Emperor now.
Princess Leia Organa: The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers
And the same is happening to Putin. He is pushing more countries out of Moscow’s orbit.
Even Kazakhstan is moving away
https://eurasianet.org/kazakh-spin-doctors-try-to-tame-anti-russia-mood
washington Compost, seriously?
You soil yourself yet again.
Fascinating article... thanks for posting.
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