For some reason everyone is silent about the fact, that Pratasevich is a combatant, who travelled to Donbas with a gun in his hand and was a member of Azov battalion and is now suspected of genocide and terror.
The claim is part of an emerging pro-Kremlin smear campaign targeting Belarusian journalist and activist Raman Pratasevich.
There is no substantial evidence to suggest that Mr. Protasevich ever participated in the military activity of the Azov battalion. Protasevich himself said in an interview with a Russian journalist in 2020 that he had been in the war zone in Eastern Ukraine as a freelance journalist. This was further confirmed by Andriy Biletskyy, former commander of Azov. He said Pratasevich had been present in the Donbas warzone, but his activity there was limited to covering the course of the conflict as a journalist. See further investigation by an independent outlet Meduza.
Pratasevich was detained in Minsk airport when flying from Athens to Vilnius. On Sunday, May 23, 2021, the Ryanair flight from Greece to Lithuania was forced to turn back before crossing the Lithuanian border and land in the Belarusian capital. The pretext for landing in Minsk was a false report about the bomb on board. At the moment when the plane changed course, it was closer to Vilnius airport than to Minsk. The plane was forced by a Belarusian military aircraft to land in Minsk. Pratasevich was detained during a repeated security check of passengers.
The EU condemned Belarusian action against a civil plane and the detention of Pratasevich. In a declaration on behalf of the EU on the forced diversion of Ryanair flight FR4978 to Minsk on 23 May 2021, the High Representative called for the immediate release of Mr Protasevich. This was followed by a European Council statement, in which the EU leaders called for targeted individual and economic sanctions as well as to ban overflight of EU airspace by Belarusian airlines and prevent access to EU airports of flights operated by these.
For further reading, see here for an overview of the ongoing pro-Kremlin campaign to label Pratasevich as a neo-Nazi.
Brussels has estimated Belarusian sovereignty at 3 billion Euros. The European Union has prepared a comprehensive plan of financial support for Belarus in case the country starts democratic transformations.
The comprehensive plan of economic support, and in fact the payment for the surrender of national sovereignty, provides for a long-term investment package in the amount of 3 billion euros for Belarus.
Recurrent pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the lost sovereignty and Belarus.
EU's comprehensive plan of economic support is neither a bribe nor the price of the national sovereignty of Belarus. Democratisation does not imply giving up sovereignty.
The fact that Pratasevich was a member of the Azov Batallion, with which even the US Congress has concerns, seem to bother neither [Romanian MEP] Armand nor the rest of the EU parliamentarians.
The claim above is part of a recurring disinformation narrative aimed at discrediting dissident Belarusian journalist Raman Pratasevich who was forced from a Ryanair flight by Belarusian authorities on May 23, 2021.
The claim, according to which Pratasevich was fighting alongside the so-called Azov Battalion, a much-criticised nationalist Ukrainian paramilitary formation fighting in the Donbas War, lacks substantial evidence. There is no solid proof to suggest that Pratasevich ever participated in the military activities of Azov.
The Al-Nusra Front terrorist group is amassing chemicals in the Idlib de-escalation zone in Syria's north in order to use them against the civilian population, according to a reliable source. The terrorists are planning to carry out the provocation in the form of time-tested false-flag chemical attacks with the help of the White Helmets.
The attack is scheduled to take place ahead of a crucial moment for Syria – the presidential election on 26 May.
Recurring pro-Kremlin conspiracy theory painting the White Helmets as terrorists and shifting blame for chemical attacks in Syria away from Damascus.
The claim is made without evidence and follows an established pattern of unsubstantiated accusations regarding the White Helmets' complicity in chemical attacks in Syria. Available evidence on such attacks has yet to link a single incident to any other party than the Assad regime.
