Valery Stepanovich Sakhashchyk is a former commander of the Belarusian 38th Separate Guards Air Assault Brigade.
21 Facts About Valery Sakhashchyk
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Valery Sakhashchyk was involved in organizing the 1st Separate Air Assault Company "Belarus", a unit of Belarusian volunteers fighting within the 79th Air Assault Brigade of Ukraine.
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Valery Sakhashchyk was born on 13 August 1964 in Goshava, Drahichyn District, when Belarus was part of the Soviet Union.
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Valery Sakhashchyk was an avid reader of adventure books involving travel and military conflict, motivating him to aim at a air force career.
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In 1995, Valery Sakhashchyk studied at the Military Academy of Belarus, after which he returned to the 38th Brigade as Deputy Brigade Commander, and then Brigade Commander.
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Valery Sakhashchyk resigned from his post in 2002, in response to what he described as "palace intrigues" in relation to reorganisation of the Belarusian armed forces.
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Valery Sakhashchyk was seen in a protest in Brest on 16 August 2020, organising a group of 38th Brigade members that aimed to prevent confrontations between protestors and police from becoming violent.
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Valery Sakhashchyk stated that he believed at the time that a legal approach within the Belarusian Constitution should have allowed citizens to defend their rights.
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The name of Valery Sakhashchyk emerged in the discussion and on 9 August 2022 he was appointed as the member for defence and security in the Belarusian United Transitional Cabinet, aimed at replacing the de facto Lukashenko government.
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Valery Sakhashchyk stated that he saw his role in the Cabinet as being within a parliamentary republic with a separation of powers and checks and balances.
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Valery Sakhashchyk said that military resources included the Kastus Kalinouski Regiment and "intelligence, surveillance and communications systems".
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Valery Sakhashchyk said that he hoped that a show of force would be enough to achieve a non-violent unity in Belarus by dialogue and that he would do his best to avoid a civil war scenario in Belarus.
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Valery Sakhashchyk argued that there were three reasons for refusing to participate: that Ukraine had never threatened Belarus; that the Ukrainian government was freely elected and not constituted of drug addicts or far-right nationalists; and that it would be illegal under the Belarusian Constitution for Belarusian forces to enter Ukraine.
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In mid-March 2022, Valery Sakhashchyk complemented the Ukrainian armed forces and territorial defence, stating that they had "exceeded all expectations".
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In October 2022, Valery Sakhashchyk published another video appeal, again calling for Belarusian armed forces to refuse to participate in a speculated attack on Ukraine.
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Valery Sakhashchyk asked if Belarusian forces would prefer to remain "highly respected members of society" rather than become criminals prosecuted in the International Criminal Court investigation in Ukraine.
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Valery Sakhashchyk expressed his worry that Belarusian casualties would lead to "decades" of enmity between Belarusians and Ukrainians.
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In June 2023 it became known that Valery Sakhashchyk headed a separate Belarusian airborne assault company in the armed forces of Ukraine.
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On 24 June 2023, during the Wagner Group rebellion in Russia, Valery Sakhashchyk released a video interpreting the rebellion as a sign that the Russian Federation would "fall apart sooner or later".
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Valery Sakhashchyk saw the situation as requiring a decision to either "use [the] historical chance and become a prosperous European country" or "lose everything".
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Valery Sakhashchyk called for the Belarusian military to assert Belarusian independence from Russia, to "unite the nation" and to "watch this space".