Anzhelika Melnikova, the speaker of the Belarusian opposition’s Coordination Council, has been missing along with her two children since March 25.
The Coordination Council for the Transfer of Power is a non-governmental political body that emerged during the mass protests against Belarus’ 2020 presidential election, which most commentators consider having been fraudulent.
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Deputy Chairman of the United Transitional Cabinet of Belarus, Pavel Latushkа, wrote on X on March 29 that Melnikova had not been in touch for several days.
He said that a report regarding her disappearance had been filed with Polish law enforcement agencies.
“We hope for the best, but we understand that key figures of Belarus’s democratic forces are priority targets for the special services of the regimes in Belarus and Russia,” Latushkа wrote.
“We will provide updates on the situation in coordination with the Polish law enforcement authorities,” he added.
According to the Euroradio outlet, Melnikova had been ill with COVID-19 in recent weeks but remained in contact with colleagues until March 21.
On March 30, reports surfaced that she had disappeared along with her two young daughters.
The Belarusian Human Rights Center Viasna also confirmed Melnikova’s disappearance, along with her children, noting that her last contact with relatives was to complain about health problems.
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Initially, Polish Interior Ministry spokesperson Jacek Dobrzynski stated that Melnikova had not been in Poland for several weeks. He said that Polish security services would cooperate with their international counterparts and the Coordination Council to determine her whereabouts.
Later Polish Interior Minister Tomasz Siemoniak confirmed that Polish authorities had determined Melnikova had left Poland several weeks ago. According to him, there is no evidence that her disappearance occurred on Polish soil.
“We are cooperating with the services of other countries, particularly those where, according to our data, Ms. Melnikova could be,” Siemoniak said, as quoted by Polish Radio. “At this stage, we can only say that there is no evidence of an incident in Poland.”
Some media reports suggest that Melnikova may be outside the EU. The Coordination Council’s Secretariat also noted that her ex-husband is believed to be in Belarus.
The Belarusian opposition outlet Nasha Niva reported that Melnikova and her daughters had left Poland, but their current whereabouts remain unknown.
According to that report, Melnikova’s disappearance has severely disrupted the Coordination Council’s operations, as she was the only one with access to its financial accounts.
In her last message to Coordination Council delegates, Melnikova mentioned she was awaiting a tranche of funds.
“I will prepare all the documents for financing within two weeks. In any case, the money will be there no earlier than in 10-12 days,” she wrote.
According to Nasha Niva, the Coordination Council has received around €100,000 ($108,000) from donors.
On Monday, March 31, Latushka told the TV channel “Nastyazhschee Vremya” that Melnikova’s mobile phone is located in Belarus.
“If we assume that she is in Belarus, and the phone was or is definitely in Belarus, this creates additional risks and threats,” he said.
He also wrote on his Telegram: “At the moment, we can report that Angelika Melnikova’s mobile phone has been in Belarus since March 19. We have established this by technical means.”
Melnikova also managed funding for the anti-Lukashenko hacker group Cyber Partisans, according to its representative, Yulianna Shametavets, speaking to Belsat TV.
Melnikova was twice detained during the 2020 protests in Belarus, which eventually forced her and her family to flee the country. She later joined the People’s Anti-Crisis Management team as a project coordinator. Melnikova has been living in Poland since 2020.
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