You're reading: Ukrainian writer Zhadan detained by police in Minsk over ban to enter Belarus

Belarusian police officers late on Saturday detained Ukrainian writer, poet and volunteer Serhiy Zhadan in a hotel in Minsk and kept at the police station until the morning. Zhadan is banned from entering Belarus.

“Here is a funny story happened to me today in Minsk. Around two a.m a police patrol being serious and concentrated arrived to my hotel room. Without explaining anything they delivered me to the police station, starting searching the database and found nothing. We called to KGB. They advised them to go to another police station – Leninskoye. They again searched the database in the Leninskoye station and finally explained me that in 2015 I was banned from entering Russia (what a pity!) as I am involved in terrorist activities. Belarus and Kazakhstan are in the same visa zone with Russia, the ban is automatically spread to Belarus and Kazakhstan,” Zhadan wrote on his Facebook page on Saturday.

The police stamped Zhadan’s passports banning from entering Belarus for an indefinite period.

Zhadan asked Ukrainian diplomats to react to the incident.