Warsaw: One night in September 2020, Hanna Kanavavavá fled her native Belarus and crossed the border into Ukraine – on foot, in the dark, with her two young grandchildren in tow.
“That’s when Ivan asked me, ‘Grandma, is mom in jail?’ And that’s when I told him the truth,” Hanna said.
Ivan, now nine, and his sister Anastasiya, seven, lived in exile for almost four years, separated from both their parents, who were jailed in Belarus for opposing strongman President Alexander Lukashenko.
They are just two of hundreds of children forced from their parents by Lukashenko’s crackdown on dissent, a campaign that jailed hundreds of regime critics after protests in 2020 threatened his quarter-century grip on power.
Ivan and Anastasia’s mother, Antanina Kanavalav, worked for Svetlana Tichanovska, the opposition leader who claimed victory against Lukashenko in the presidential election that summer.
Human rights groups and independent observers say the vote was marred by rampant fraud and ballot stuffing as official results showed Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994, won with 80 percent.
His riot police reacted forcefully against the protesters, and a wave of arrests and tightening of repression followed.
Antanina was arrested in September 2020 and sentenced to five and a half years in prison, while the children’s father, Siarhei Yarashevich, received two sentences totaling six years and three months.
Banned human rights group Viasna estimates that Belarus has 1,400 political prisoners.
Hanna Kanavalava, 60, drove the children out of the country just four days after their mother was arrested.
She took them briefly to Ukraine and then to Poland, which became a haven for many of the hundreds of thousands of refugees.
Hanna feared that the Belarusian authorities would take custody of Ivan and Anastasia if they stayed and potentially use them to pressure their parents.
Children write letters to their parents, although correspondence with political prisoners, if permitted, is severely restricted and censored.
Anastasiya read parts of one to an AFP reporter: “Hi mom, how are you? I’m fine. I finished fourth in a chess tournament. A big, big, big hug.”
Children are allowed a maximum five-minute video call once a month with their mother under the supervision of a prison guard.
Hanna worries that her grandchildren, especially the younger Anastasiya, are beginning to forget their parents.
But Anastasiya – who says she wants to be “a doctor or a vet… make a lot of money” – said she wants to help.
“I want to spend all this money on taking care of mom and dad. And buy them a plane ticket to Warsaw when they’re released,” she said.
Her mother Antanina had serious vision problems in prison.
She is scheduled to be released next year – unless her sentence is increased.
Then “my mission will be to help her be reborn, take care of herself… and reconnect with her children,” Hanna said, whispering so the children couldn’t hear.
Experts worry about the emotional and psychological harm that the situation will cause children behind bars.
Volha Vialičková, a psychologist from Belarus, told AFP that she has met 60 children of political prisoners and sees a lot of “pain, despair and anger”.
Many resemble “premature adults,” she said.
“They are very sensitive to moments that remind them of their circumstances, when they say to themselves: I am alone, without mom and dad.”
Although Hanna and the children are safe from repression in Poland, they still face instability.
They do not have stable accommodation due to a lack of income and rely on the support of the Belarusian and Ukrainian diaspora as well as the Polish state.
A recent move to a new apartment in the suburbs of Warsaw in Ivanovo reawakened the trauma of fleeing Belarus.
He has nightmares about “his parents being taken away by soldiers” and “a wolf in the woods,” Hanna said.
He regularly takes children to demonstrations organized by the Belarusian opposition in exile.
As of May 2023, Hanna is also responsible for two more children – Marcel and Timur Zhuravlyov, brothers aged five and 15.
Their mother, Olga Zhuravlyova, another Belarusian political opponent who fled to Poland, died last April after falling into depression and overdosing on drugs.
“My mom died because no one was there for her,” Timur said.
Marcel, who was playing soccer in a Spiderman cap when AFP visited the group, cried a lot when he realized his mother was gone, his brother said. They don’t talk about it now.
Hanna said Timur seemed like a “scared kitten” at first, but his confidence grew.
Their experience made the children “tougher,” she said. “You have to make a team and be strong,” she said, adding, “No one will ever replace their mom.”
