This content was formerly published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and it is now being reprinted with permission.
The photo became popular and was widely seen around the world, a representation of both the brutality of Belarus ‘ security forces and the resilience and bravery of activists confronting an authoritarian regime.
It was August 2020 and the photograph showed a young lady sitting on the ground, her face and head covered with blood, being given health focus.
The victim’s name was Maria Zaytsava, and she was then only 19 years older. In a vote that was commonly decried abroad as neither free nor good, she was one of tens of thousands of people, many of them younger, who had taken to the streets to rally the election of Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka.
The safety forces responded with a brutal crackdown, arresting over 30, 000 people, many of whom reported abuse and ill-treatment while in prison.
On January 17, a day after her 24th holiday,  , Zaytsava died fighting for Ukraine.
Minsk Demonstrations
Despite the complaints of her household, in 2020, Zaytsava traveled from her home of Homel, in southern Belarus, to meet the demonstrations in Minsk.
She fought off protection forces in city Minsk on August 9, 2020, as one of the protesters gathered there on the evening of August 9, 2020.
” At some point, explosives flew at us, and they started shooting people with plastic bullets”, one witness told RFE/RL’s Belarus Service. ” There was horror, no one could understand what was happening, why they were doing it. There were blasts outside, and I saw plenty of bruised people”.
Zaytsava was at the front of the audience when security forces attacked with water cannons, rubber guns, and stun grenades.
” We stood calmly, shouting”, Zaytsava afterward recalled of that day. ” I remember they were ]using water cannons ] on us, and then there was an explosion and I was lying on the ground. After that I don’t recall anything…. I was blinded”.
The activists were disoriented, severely injured, and also battling the security forces ‘ assault. It was then that an RFE/RL artist took a photo of Zaytsava, sitting silently on the cement, clearly in horror and covered in blood.
Zaytsava was entirely blind in one ear after the explosion. Additionally, she experienced serious injuries to her eyes and face and a head lesion. ” It’s obvious that it changed me a lot”, she later said. ” I’m also a little bit consumed by post-traumatic stress disorder”.
Zaytsava traveled to Czech Republic to receive professional care after having some operations in Belarus. She attempted to repair her life that by utilizing MEDEVAC, a Czech government initiative that provides free medical care and guidance to people who have experienced humanitarian crises, problems, or natural disasters.
As she began to recover, she likewise began training at the Czech Technical University.
Fighting In Ukraine
When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Zaytsava discovered a novel asking.
She immediately offered to assist Ukrainian refugees in the Czech Republic, but by flower of 2023 she had made the decision to enlist in the Ukrainian Foreign Legion, a Russian military system made up entirely of foreigners.
” She was but little, she didn’t have a tool, so where should she come”? recalled Ales Petrouski, a top doctor in the Ukrainian Foreign Legion and Zaytsava’s chief.
That is how the Belarusian ended up in the hospital. But that didn’t mean she was getting an easy journey, Petrouski emphasized. Whether you’re a physician or not, you’re still under fireplace in the pits, he told RFE/RL’s Belarus Service.
Because Zaytsava spoke English, which was important in a language where not everyone could speak Ukrainian or Russian, according to Petrouski, she likewise assumed duties as a translator for the Foreign Legion.
Connected Problems
For Zaytsava, the struggle for freedom in Belarus and Ukraine’s struggle against Russia were connected. She joined the participants in Ukraine partly because she hoped for freedom in Belarus, according to Petrouski.
She wanted to go back and was angry that she was essentially forced out of the land. The notion that she had to leave Belarus actually knocked her off her feet,” Petrouski said.
Belarus is probably Russia’s most steadfast alliance, and Minsk has given Moscow military and diplomatic support. The state of Lukashenka has allowed Russia to use its defense facilities and facilities, and it has permitted attacks against Ukraine to take place on its territory.
She injured her hands, so she returned to the Czech Republic after spending period on the Russian before. However, in January 2024, she made the decision to make a second appearance on the Russian front line.
She was killed in a fight one month later in Bakhmut, a city in eastern Ukraine that had been taken over by Russian forces in May of 2023 and had since experienced harsh fighting.
Writing to a close friend after her returning to the front line, Zaytsava stated her wishes if she perish:” In the military survey, I indicated that I am an agnostic. I don’t understand if this will change my probable burial, but I wouldn’t want to be buried under a bridge”.
People of Zaytsava’s device told RFE/RL’s Belarus Service that, under Russian artillery fire, her own soldiers managed to leave her body from the field.
” Profoundly injured during the 2020 Belarus protests, she gave her life for freedom”, said Belarusian opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya about Zaytsava’s death. She was, she said,” an image of our trend”.
