Belarusian journalist mistaken for Russian terrorist in Donetsk

Dzmitry Halko was detained in Donetsk by the officers of Ukraine’s Security Service (USS) suspected of terroristic activities.

Later it came out that he had been very unlucky with the roommate, Novy Chas reports.

“On 9 and 10 March I was in Donetsk. At night on 11 March I was going to go further on my route, but in several hours before the train I was suddenly detained by USS officers. I came to the railway station’s recreation room, where I rented a bed in a double room, in order to get my belongings. At the entrance I was blocked by a group of people in mufti, who made me follow them”, - Dzmitry Halko tells about the incident.

The journalist did not at once understood who detained him and for what.

“There were several minutes, probably one of the scariest in my life, when I was sure that bandits came to kill me. As if in response to my thoughts I was assured: “There are no bandits here, all are officials”. They explained the reason for my detention to me. Explosives were found in my room. Respectively I was suspected of terroristic activities”, - he said.

Dzmitry Halko pointed out that his roommate was a citizen of Russia, who had taken the room before him.

“He did not introduce himself and was reluctant to answer questions at all. He just confirmed my guess that he was from Russia. This, though, was absolutely obvious. However they laughed at the nation of “clear Russian accent”, which was frequently used in the news of the Maidan’s standoff period, this accent is clearly identifiable. Probably, among Russian-speaking intelligentsia somewhere in Kyiv someone managed to drop by drop get rid of Ukrainian articulation and phonetics, but even in Donetsk by every interlocutor I was unmistakably identified as a foreigner. Unfortunately, the first thought that they had was that I came from Russia”, - he says.

Now the journalist is at large.