Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine: Belarus Ignores Search For Pavel Grib, Who Disappeared On Its Territory

The Belarusian Foreign Ministry has received the Ukrainian note, but has given no response.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus received a note from Ukraine about the missing Ukrainian, Pavel Grib, but did not provide any new information. It was announced on August 30 by deputy head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Elena Zerkal on the air of Channel 5.

"We are trying to find out the situation and are bending every effort to change this situation. We cannot say that the Belarusians cooperate properly, unfortunately," – Zerkal says.

According to her, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has involved all the Ukrainian consuls in order to establish Grib’s whereabouts.

Advisor to the head of the Synodal Administration of the Military Clergy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate Igor Grib states that on August 24, FSB officers abducted his son, 19-year-old Pavel Grib, on suspicion of terrorism in Homel.

Grib also says that Pavel takes maintenance medication regularly.

The prosecutor's office of Chernihiv region opened a criminal case under the article "premeditated murder" on Grib’s disappearance.

The Belarusian service of Euroradio reported that Grib might have been taken to the Krasnodar Territory of the Russian Federation, where he was being held in an FSB department. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said that, according to the law enforcement bodies of Belarus, Grib was not held in any of the special institutions of the country.

On August 30, Valeriya Lutkovskaya, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, asked Tatyana Moskalkova, the human rights commissioner in Russia, to check the information on the missing person.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Pavel Klimkin intends to discuss the matter of Grib with his Belarusian counterpart Uladzimir Makei.