Minsk dweller lost her job for support of Ukraine

Natallya Harachka has lost her job for her stance towards the war in Ukraine.

“I work for Promtransinvest insurance company, and we often provide services to officials of all kinds. And on February 14 an official from the presidential administration visited us on business,” the public activist and a human rights watchdog told to Belorusskiy partisan.

At that moment she was watching a documentary about POWs, Russian military who had arrived to make war in Ukraine, at her computer. As said by the activist, the official was greatly surprised to see a film, in which captured Russian servicemen named their military units, and narrated how and why they had appeared in Ukraine.

“He was extremely displeased by my badge with a white-red-white flag and Pahonya emblem. He also didn’t like my stance towards the war in Ukraine. We started a conversation on this topic, he had not expressed his opinion into my face, he didn’t even argue. But later, when he returned to the administration, he made a noise about it, something like how a person like me, a person with such views, could work for a company which provides services to the presidential administration. The result was: that man called the head office of the company and demanded my immediate dismissal,” Natalya said.

As said by her, her colleagues and the executive staff were shocked by that order. But no one came to the defence of the activist.

“It is possible that the decisive role was played by the fact that the presidential administration owns 1% of the company’s shares, so the company is a little afraid of them. And now I do not want to waste my energy and time on struggle against these officials and the system. I have dealt with them many times, and I know what it takes,” the activist stressed.

At the moment she is actively engaged in fund-raising and collection of aid for Ukrainian military. “I was on Maidan, I personally knew many of people who were killed there. And now the war in Ukraine is not an empty phrase for me. That’s why assistance to Ukrainians is the priority for me. As long as people are killed in Ukraine, everything else doesn’t matter, even my dismissal. Belarus is the next on the list, so in case Ukraine loses, the war is to come to us as well. Ukrainians are fighters, and we are not able to defend ours in the same way. So it is very important for me to help Ukraine now as much as I could,” – Natallya summed up.