“Get Dimka Out!”: Details of the Shootout in Minsk

What happened after breaking the door to the apartment?

On September 28, in Minsk, KGB siloviki came to an apartment building on Yakubouskaha Street to conduct another search but were met with resistance. An employee of the IT company EPAM Systems Andrei Zeltser took out a hunting rifle and opened fire when the security officers broke into his apartment. According to the official version, the man mortally wounded the security officer and was killed by return fire. This story has left two widows, two fatherless children, and several major inconsistencies.

Novaya Gazeta has collected everything that is now known about the shootout with the KGB.

The State Security Committee of Belarus reported on the death of its employee at about 17:00 on Tuesday, and literally immediately after that, the pro-government Belarusian telegram channels began to publish a video of the shootout, edited in a rather strange way.

Filming is being conducted both from behind the security forces (it can be assumed that the KGB was planning to conduct operational filming) and from inside the apartment. In the latter case, we see the shooter himself and his wife recording what is happening on the phone. It is not clear who and why in advance filmed the moment of shooting at the Chekists. In the video, there is no shooting from the place where Zeltser's wife is standing, the camera is on the other side, presumably, on the closet.

"Get Dimka out!" the law enforcers shout at the end of the video; there is the sound of gunfire.

However, the moments of wounding Zeltser and the KGB fighter are not shown, we only see how red spots spread under the security officer, and then chaotic shooting begins right in the corridor. The shooter and the killed KGB officer never appear in the frame at the same time.

The footage also shows that the security forces breaking down the door are dressed in civilian clothes.

Dimka from Alpha

"Dimka" from the video, according to official figures, died of wounds in the hospital. The day after the incident, the BYPOL project, uniting ex-employees of the security structures of Belarus, who opposed the regime of Aliaksandr Lukashenka, said that the killed security official was named Dzmitry Fedasiuk. He served in the elite Alpha unit, his call sign was "Nirvana," and he turned 31 in June. According to the project, his mother also works in the state security - the head of one of the divisions of the central office.

This information was partially confirmed by the official representative of the Investigative Committee of Belarus Siarhei Kabakovich, who said that the killed law enforcement officer was born in 1990.

Andrei from EPAM Systems

The owner of the apartment, which was "visited" by the security forces on September 28, was Andrei Zeltser. He was in his 32nd year. The man, as Nasha Niva found out, worked as a leading analyst at the EPAM Systems support service and raised an 8-year-old son. Judging by the Instagram account, Andrei was fond of fencing, did triathlons, ran marathons, and participated in other sports competitions.

Since the beginning of the Belarusian protests, he has supported the demonstrators and called on Minsk residents to take to the streets.

“This is the 8th day of the struggle for a better future for our country. 81 people went missing, more than 7000 people were detained, several people died, law enforcement agencies in civilian attire kidnap people in broad daylight, the illegitimate one pretends that nothing is happening.

Comrades Belarusians, how did your grandfathers win the war? Did they also have a fear of leaving the house? Did they also have a fear of opposing the fascists? I think that there was fear. But they somehow fought their fear,” he wrote on his page a year ago.

Judging by the photo in another Instagram account, which was conducted on behalf of Zeltser (the first photo appeared there in early March), the man actually had a hunting rifle, presumably, of the IZH-27 model or similar.

Zeltser's mother-in-law, in a conversation with Nasha Niva, said that she had no idea where he got the weapon from.

“I can't say or think anything. I'm shocked, I don't understand what's going on. The daughter is an ordinary salesman. There were no signs of trouble. Andrei is a very good person, a wonderful son-in-law. The most beloved person. Calm, attentive, reasonable, kind. He always helps. Any mother-in-law would dream of such a son-in-law. do not know where Andrei got the weapon from. So far, I have only talked with his parents about our grandson,” she said.

After the security forces shot Andrei Zeltser, they also detained his 40-year-old wife, who was filming what was happening on camera and, according to the security officials, thereby participated in the crime. The child was at school at that time.

Now his mother, an employee of the Mila cosmetics chain, is in an isolation ward on Akrestsina Street. She is suspected of complicity in the murder of a KGB officer.

According to Zerkalo.io, the woman's name is Maryja Uspenskaya. The couple got married in 2011. "She loved her husband very much and treasured her relationship with him. She and Andrei went to psychologists: they had no problems but just wanted to build an even stronger relationship," Uspenskaya's friend told the publication.

According to her, during the presidential elections in Belarus in the summer of 2020, Uspenskaya helped to count people who voted for Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.