Fundraiser for Former Political Prisoner and Journalist Kseniya Lutskina: Medical Treatment and Adaptation

Evac­u­a­tion team BYSOL helped jour­nal­ist and for­mer polit­i­cal pris­on­er Kseniya Lut­ski­na leave Belarus. She is now safe, but she needs your sup­port. At her request, BYSOL is launch­ing this fundrais­er.

Deputy Chair­man of the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists Barys Haret­sky, for­mer polit­i­cal pris­on­er jour­nal­ist Kse­nia Lut­ski­na and Chair­man of the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists Andrei Bas­tunets on the first day after the jour­nal­ist’s evac­u­a­tion from Belarus. March 4, 2025. Pho­to: BAJ

Kseniya Lut­ski­na worked at Bel­tel­era­dio­com­pa­ny, pro­duc­ing doc­u­men­tary films on his­tor­i­cal top­ics. In August 2020, after the elec­tions, she joined the staff strike of the media hold­ing, express­ing her dis­agree­ment with the leadership’s poli­cies, and resigned from her posi­tion as a spe­cial cor­re­spon­dent. She lat­er became a key mem­ber of the Coor­di­na­tion Coun­cil, respon­si­ble for press rela­tions, and, togeth­er with oth­er dis­missed jour­nal­ists, planned to cre­ate an “alter­na­tive tele­vi­sion” on YouTube.

On Decem­ber 22, 2020, Kseniya was arrest­ed in Min­sk. Ini­tial­ly, she was charged with tax eva­sion, but lat­er the charge was reclas­si­fied as “con­spir­a­cy to seize state pow­er.” On Sep­tem­ber 28, 2022, a court sen­tenced her to 8 years in a gen­er­al-regime penal colony.

Dur­ing her impris­on­ment, Kseniya’s health sig­nif­i­cant­ly dete­ri­o­rat­ed. She was diag­nosed with a brain tumor that kept grow­ing, caus­ing con­stant headaches and requir­ing reg­u­lar painkillers. In Feb­ru­ary 2023, she suf­fered from severe bilat­er­al pneu­mo­nia, fur­ther weak­en­ing her body. Exact­ly a year lat­er, in Feb­ru­ary 2024, she faced anoth­er pneu­mo­nia episode.

Despite con­tin­u­ous pres­sure, in 2021, Kseniya refused to sign a peti­tion for clemen­cy addressed to Lukashenko, stay­ing true to her prin­ci­ples.

On Jan­u­ary 13, 2023, the Min­istry of Inter­nal Affairs includ­ed her in the “List of Belaru­sian Cit­i­zens, For­eign Cit­i­zens, or State­less Per­sons Involved in Extrem­ist Activ­i­ties.”

On August 20, 2024, Kseniya Lut­ski­na was released under a so-called “par­don,” and on March 3, with the help of the BYSOL evac­u­a­tion team, she left Belarus. Kseniya is final­ly free, but the fight for her life and health is not over. After four years in prison and seri­ous ill­ness­es, she urgent­ly needs med­ical care, recov­ery, and sup­port. We are launch­ing this fundrais­er to help Kseniya start a new chap­ter in her life—one with­out fear, pain, or threats.

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Fundraising Goal: €7,000

We set this amount because Kseniya has a severe med­ical con­di­tion that requires treat­ment. We expect that most of the funds will go towards med­ical expens­es, with a small por­tion allo­cat­ed for her adap­ta­tion.