Busły laciać (, ) is a

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

ian opposition resistance group. It was founded on 13 November, 2020, to fight against the government of

Alexander Lukashenko Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko (also transliterated as Alyaksandr Ryhoravich Lukashenka; born 30 August 1954) is a Belarusian politician who has been the first and only president of Belarus since the office's establishment in 1994, making hi ...

. The group is part of the "Supraciŭ" association, alongside the

Cyber Partisans Cyber Partisans (, ) is a Belarusian decentralized anonymous hacktivist collective emerged in September 2020, known for its various cyber attacks against the authoritarianism, authoritarian Government of Belarus, Belarusian government. The group ...

Overview

Busły liaciać's activities range from harmless acts like street art and flash mobs to minor sabotage. The "Busły" have claimed responsibility for destroying dozens of CCTV cameras, damaging security forces' vehicles and property, and blocking railways. One notable action attributed to them was an attack on the Minsk

OMON OMON is a system of military special police units within the Armed Forces of Russia. It previously operated within the structures of the Soviet and Russian Ministries of Internal Affairs (MVD). Originating as the special forces unit of the So ...

base in late September 2021. The "Busły" reportedly used a drone to drop two 5-liter containers of incendiary mixture onto the riot police base in

Uručča Uručča, (also referred to as Uruchcha or Uruch'ye) (, ; translation into English language, English: ''Brookside'') is a microdistrict in the north-eastern part of Minsk. It was founded on the place of former Uručča village in the early 19 ...

during the night. The group claims that the attack caused loud pops and flashes, waking people in nearby houses. They also released a video from the drone documenting the incident. The

Ministry of Internal Affairs An interior ministry or ministry of the interior (also called ministry of home affairs or ministry of internal affairs) is a government department that is responsible for domestic policy, public security and law enforcement. In some states, the i ...

did not initially comment on the attack on the OMON base. However, in October 2021, the Prosecutor General's Office indirectly confirmed the fact of the attack, acknowledging that there had been "an act of terrorism using UAVs" in September 2021. In October 2021, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus recognized the "Busły liaciać"

Telegram channel Telegram, also known as Telegram Messenger, is a Cloud computing, cloud-based, Cross-platform software, cross-platform, social media and instant messaging (IM) service. It was originally launched for iOS on 14 August 2013 and Android on 20 Octo ...

and chat as extremist formations, warning that subscribing to or actively participating in them would result in criminal liability. On December 1, 2021, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Belarus classified "Supraciŭ" and its member initiatives, including the "

," "DNS," and "Busły liaciać," as terrorist organizations, banning them in

. A representative of the prosecutor's office stated that, "since the spring of 2021, these groups had been using Telegram channels and chats to discuss, plan, and promote terrorist acts, viz. arson and the explosion of buildings and vehicles." Since the onset of the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

, the movement has carried out acts of

sabotage Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, government, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, demoralization (warfare), demoralization, destabilization, divide and rule, division, social disruption, disrupti ...

on both Belarusian and Russian railways. In September 2022, several participants of the movement were sentenced to long prison terms.

References

2020–2021 Belarusian protests Belarusian and Russian partisan movement (2022–present) Belarusian opposition Organizations of the Russo-Ukrainian War 2020 establishments in Belarus {{Belarus-org-stub

Overview

See also

References