“We pointed and said: “Europe“, “Germany“, “Merkel.“ Neither we nor they knew English.”
“They warned us: if you go back to Belarus, they’ll beat you up”
Доступно на русском языке
A., former conscript of the Belarusian Border Service
In 2019, I finished school and wanted to enroll at a university. But my scores weren’t high enough for admission anywhere. I tried to avoid military service, got into a college, studied for half a year, and dropped out. I decided it would be better to go to the army and get it over with — I didn’t want to run and hide until I turned 27. I went to the draft office myself and said I wanted to serve. The medical exam was completely pointless: I had back pain, but the doctor just asked me to twist a little and then stamped me as fit. I was assigned the highest fitness category. They sent me to the border guards. At the time, I had no idea what that service was or what it involved — I just accepted that I had to serve for a year and a half.
