InformNapalm proposes exchange of suspected Belarus spy for imprisoned journalist Dzianis Ivashyn

The inter­na­tion­al vol­un­teer com­mu­ni­ty Inform­Na­palm has pub­licly appealed to Ukraine’s Main Direc­torate of Intel­li­gence to con­sid­er exchang­ing Ina Kar­dash — a jour­nal­ist detained in Kyiv on sus­pi­cion of spy­ing for the Belaru­sian KGB since 2015 — for jour­nal­ist Dzia­n­is Ivashyn, head of InformNapalm.org’s Belaru­sian edi­to­r­i­al office

Inform­Na­palm logo

On Jan­u­ary 27, infor­ma­tion emerged about the deten­tion in Kyiv of jour­nal­ist Ina Kar­dash, whom Ukrain­ian secu­ri­ty ser­vices sus­pect of espi­onage on behalf of the Belaru­sian KGB since 2015.

On Jan­u­ary 28, Inform­Na­palm founder and edi­tor-in-chief Roman Burko appealed to Ukraine’s Main Direc­torate of Intel­li­gence and oth­er Ukrain­ian agen­cies involved in pris­on­er exchanges.

“If they plan to exchange this Belaru­sian spy, we request con­sid­er­a­tion of exchang­ing her for jour­nal­ist Dzia­n­is Ivashyn,” Burko wrote. “Since 2021, the edi­tor-in-chief of InformNapalm’s Belaru­sian edi­to­r­i­al office, Dzia­n­is Ivashyn, has been held cap­tive by the Lukashenko regime, sen­tenced to 13 years in prison for jour­nal­is­tic pub­li­ca­tions about for­mer Berkut offi­cers who joined Lukashenko’s ser­vice.”

Ina Kar­dash. Pho­to: Lookby.media

Burko empha­sized that Ivashyn “is rec­og­nized as a polit­i­cal pris­on­er, and at high diplo­mat­ic lev­els in Lithua­nia, the USA, and Ukraine, they know about his fate and know that since March 12, 2021, he has been unlaw­ful­ly impris­oned in Belarus for his jour­nal­is­tic activ­i­ties, OSINT inves­ti­ga­tions, and for the truth he told in his pieces.”

“Since 2014, Dzia­n­is Ivashyn has writ­ten arti­cles warn­ing that Belarus could fall into direct depen­dence and qui­et occu­pa­tion by Rus­sia, and that lat­er Belaru­sian ter­ri­to­ry could be used by Rus­sians as a plat­form for aggres­sion against Ukraine and the Baltic states. In many ways, his fore­casts and arti­cles proved prophet­ic, and we con­sid­er Dzia­n­is Ivashyn a true pris­on­er of con­science and fight­er for Belarus’s free­dom,” Burko explained.

The Inform­Na­palm founder not­ed that “the inter­nal occu­pa­tion regime of Belarus, rein­forced by Moscow, tried to por­tray Dzia­n­is as a ‘trai­tor’ only because he told the truth about real war crim­i­nals, pub­lished exposé arti­cles and OSINT inves­ti­ga­tions.”

How­ev­er, Burko wrote, “Dzia­n­is was not an agent — he was and remains a per­son of good will who fought for truth and jus­tice and told the world about Russ­ian aggres­sion. Dzia­n­is sin­cere­ly sup­port­ed and sup­ports the lib­er­a­tion strug­gle of the Ukrain­ian peo­ple.”

The case of Dzianis Ivashyn

Dzia­n­is Ivashyn has been impris­oned for near­ly five years, since March 12, 2021. KGB offi­cers detained him the day after he gave an inter­view to the inde­pen­dent TV chan­nel Cur­rent Time.

Dzia­n­is Ivashyn

On Sep­tem­ber 14, 2022, the Hrod­na Region­al Court found him guilty of trea­son and ille­gal col­lec­tion and dis­sem­i­na­tion of infor­ma­tion about pri­vate life. Judge Valer Ramanous­ki sen­tenced Ivashyn to 13 years and 1 month in prison. He was also ordered to pay a total of $9,030 in moral dam­ages to nine secu­ri­ty offi­cers.

In late June 2023, his pun­ish­ment was tight­ened: with­out noti­fy­ing his fam­i­ly or lawyer, the court trans­ferred him to a high-secu­ri­ty prison.