The Power Within: The Kyiv Independent’s first-ever magazine. Be among the first to get it.

pre-order now
Skip to content
Edit post

Rock band famous for 2020 protest anthem detained in Belarus

by Elsa Court and The Kyiv Independent news desk January 6, 2024 9:37 PM 2 min read
The soloist of the Belarusian rock band Nizkiz, Aleksandr Ilyin stands in front of people on the music speaker during a performance in Warsaw, Poland, on June 19, 2022. (Volha Shukaila/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
This audio is created with AI assistance

Three members of Belarusian rock band Nizkiz, whose song "Pravily" became known as a protest anthem during the 2020 pro-democracy demonstrations, were detained in Belarus, independent Russian media outlet Meduza reported on Jan. 6.

Alexander Lukashenko's regime continues to crack down on those who have any link to the mass protests that followed the Belarusian presidential election in 2020, the results of which were declared fraudulent by the U.S. and EU.

The lead singer of the band, Aleksandr Ilyin, guitarist Sergey Kulcha, and drummer Dmitry Kholyavkin were detained by security forces in Mogilev in eastern Belarus, according to media reports.

State television broadcast footage of the security forces forcibly entering the apartments of the musicians and carrying out their arrests.

State television also broadcast a video in which Ilyin is recorded apologizing for the band's decision to shoot the music video for "Pravily" at the protests in Minsk. In the video, he blames the decision on a "wave of emotions." The music video appears to have been deleted from the band's YouTube channel.

Lukashenko's regime frequently forces those detained on political grounds to apologize for their actions on camera.

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who ran against Lukashenko and was considered to have won the popular vote in the 2020 elections, was filmed telling Belarusians not to join mass protests when she was arrested in August 2020.

Belarusian state media claimed that the musicians left Belarus after the protests, but later decided to return home. According to the Viasna Human Rights Centre, this claim is incorrect, as the men "continued to live in Belarus, sometimes going to other countries for concerts."

Leonid Nesteruk, the fourth band member, lives in Warsaw, according to the independent Belarusian news site Nasha Niva.

Tsikhanouskaya was forced out of the country and lives in exile. She was sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison in March 2023.

In absentia criminal trials for "election obstruction" were launched at the end of 2023 against Tsikhanouskaya's advisor, Aleksandr Dabravolski, and the leaders of three initiatives that exposed the rigging of the 2020 elections.

New Belarusian poetry collection explores revolution, exile, war
When Belarusian author Hanna Komar brought the manuscript for her poetry collection “Ribwort” to a publisher in Belarus in the summer of 2021, she was told that their business would be shut down if they published her work. Komar, like thousands of her fellow Belarusians, took part in the 2020-2021

News Feed

8:08 PM

Ukrainians react to US proposal of recognizing Crimea as Russian.

The U.S. media outlet Axios reported on April 23 that the U.S. President Donald Trump administration's final proposal for ending the Russia-Ukraine war included the U.S. de jure recognizing Russia's annexation of Crimea and de facto recognizing its control of other occupied Ukrainian territories. We asked Kyiv residents for their reactions to the U.S. proposal.
7:21 PM  (Updated: )

Trump says 'nobody is asking' Ukraine to recognize Crimea as Russian.

"Nobody is asking (President Volodymyr) Zelensky to recognize Crimea as Russian Territory, but if he wants Crimea, why didn’t they fight for it eleven years ago when it was handed over to Russia without a shot being fired?" U.S. President Donald Trump wrote.
MORE NEWS

Editors' Picks

Enter your email to subscribe
Please, enter correct email address
Subscribe
* indicates required
* indicates required
Subscribe
* indicates required
* indicates required
Subscribe
* indicates required
Subscribe
* indicates required
Subscribe
* indicates required

Subscribe

* indicates required
Subscribe
* indicates required
Subscribe
* indicates required
Explaining Ukraine with Kate Tsurkan
* indicates required
Successfuly subscribed
Thank you for signing up for this newsletter. We’ve sent you a confirmation email.