Переоделся в девушку и вышел в РБ

Maxim shares his story of escaping Belarus disguised as a woman, detailing the challenges and strategies he used to gain freedom.

Key Takeaways

Disguise can be an effective tool for evading law enforcement in risky situations.
Mental resilience and support networks are crucial for enduring and planning an escape.
Thorough preparation and adaptability increase chances of successful border crossing.
Physical endurance and proper gear are necessary for navigating difficult terrain.
Freedom brings a profound sense of relief and normalcy after prolonged oppression.

What the video covers

Maxim describes his life under pressure in Belarus and the mental challenges he faced before deciding to escape.
He explains the moment he was almost caught by police and his subsequent decision to stay indoors for months.
Maxim gathered information and support from friends who had escaped before him.
He chose to disguise himself as a woman using a wig, makeup, and clothing to avoid police detection.
He traveled mostly by bike through remote villages and forests, encountering police but avoiding capture due to his disguise.
Maxim shares practical tips such as carrying multiple mosquito repellents and wearing durable clothing for rough terrain.
He recounts the physical difficulties of the journey, including navigating difficult terrain with a heavy backpack.
Maxim emphasizes the importance of careful planning, trust, and resourcefulness in successfully crossing borders.
He reflects on the psychological impact of living under surveillance and the relief of gaining freedom.
The story highlights creative and courageous methods used by individuals to escape oppressive environments.

Chapters

Why did Maxim choose to disguise himself as a woman during his escape?

Maxim chose to disguise himself as a woman because it allowed him to avoid police suspicion while traveling through areas with patrols. The disguise gave him confidence and helped him pass by police vehicles without being stopped.

What were some of the main challenges Maxim faced during his escape?

Maxim faced mental stress, physical exhaustion, difficult terrain, and the risk of being caught by police. He also had to carefully plan his route and carry heavy gear, including water and protective clothing.

How did Maxim prepare for his journey to increase his chances of success?

Maxim gathered information from friends who had escaped, bought necessary gear including a wig and makeup for disguise, planned a route through remote villages, and ensured he had enough supplies like mosquito repellent and water.

Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

Speaker A

Good afternoon. How are things? How are you doing in freedom? Hello. Everything is wonderful, everything is great. They feed us well here. I’ve already finished registration. I’m just waiting for the paperwork to be processed. Life in freedom is wonderful. Planes are flying, birds are singing. No one is chasing you. There’s no constant feeling of someone watching your back, that someone is tracking you.

Speaker A

Everything is fine. That’s great. I heard that you just recently managed to get out to the Republic of Belarus on your own.

Speaker A

Yes, yes, yes, it was hard, but I did it. I had support, sometimes I had internet, a connection, and friends supported me, because at first, it was very mentally difficult.

Speaker A

Yeah. Well then, I’m interested to hear your story. Let’s get acquainted first. Could you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you managed to do all this?

Speaker A

My name is Maxim. I’m 25-plus. I had no deferments or exemptions. Well, during all this activity, I felt more or less calm. Even though they had started to pressure people on the streets a bit. But I still got around the city, mostly by bike, more or less.

Speaker A

Okay, this was four, no, three, yeah, about 3 years, more or less. I didn't travel out of the city, I only moved within it. I was involved in trade, it brought in enough, everything was okay.

Speaker A

Until a certain moment in November '25, when I decided to go on foot because the weather was so rainy. Yeah. So, I just decided to walk down a less crowded street. Yeah. And some powerful guys tried to pack me up. I was just

Speaker A

walking along the road and saw out of the corner of my eye that a car was parking next to me. I looked up and saw this chubby little face rolling out of the car, starting to smile at me. I

Speaker A

looked back immediately, and there was a police car already parked there. Yeah. Well, I just stood there stunned for a bit. A second or two later, I jumped between the cars, crossed the oncoming lane, and bolted, I just ran. The cops

Speaker A

turned around and started chasing me. At the last moment, when they were driving up and hopping onto the curb toward me, I managed to jump over a fence into someone's yard with my last bit of strength. I fell like a sack of

Speaker A

sand. Yeah. But they didn't come into the yard. Yeah. And I got lucky. Basically, I was lucky enough to get away from them. And since then, since November, I hadn't left the house, I didn't leave until July 6th, when I

Speaker A

finally had to move. That’s how things went. Well, at that moment, when they were trying to catch me, I more or less knew that such exit options existed. I just stayed until the very end because I was closing my eyes to it,

Speaker A

willing to put up with it with some naive hope that it would all be over soon. Like, how could it be, it's been so long, you can't walk the streets freely, it should have been over by now.

Speaker A

Yeah. Plus, there were no problems with housing, and things were generally okay. And of course, I had money to get moving, because I had some work that brought in income, and it was more or less fine. Yeah. But at the moment when

Speaker A

problems started popping up at home, like conflicts, just domestic stuff, I finally decided that this wasn't going anywhere. Plus the situation outside was pressing down, like everything was just getting worse and worse every day.

Speaker A

And those rumors again about mobilization in the RF. And here, the higher-ups started saying there would be another crackdown, though I don't know what else there is to tighten, unless they start going house to house.

Speaker A

Though I think they'll come to that anyway. Yeah. And basically, all of this just piled up on me, and I just decided in that moment that I had to bolt. I started vacuuming up information in turbo mode, very quickly.

Speaker A

I already had some kind of base of information, more or less an understanding of how things worked. Plus, I had acquaintances who had gotten out, friends. I soaked up some of the information from them, they helped me put together some gear, and tipped me off about what I needed and what I didn't. I quickly bought all

Speaker A

that up. And then I slipped through. I had to move around in civilian clothes, where there were people, like, where things were happening. I had to cover quite a distance to get to the starting point. And this really stressed me out,

Speaker A

because, say, hiring some taxi driver, like people usually do, was just sketchy, since I was basically handing my life over and trusting it to another person. And, well, I was genuinely really creeped out by that. So, in the

Speaker A

end, it was decided that I would get to the starting point on my own. Yeah. And a decision was also made. Someone threw an idea my way. At first, it was just taken as a joke, but then I sat and

Speaker A

thought about it: "Why the hell not?" No, the idea itself isn't overdone. And if you approach it, uh, with a certain level of responsibility, and actually do it right, then it’s really not bad at all. And I’ll tell you, the end

Speaker A

result turned out pretty well. So I bought a wig, got some glasses, bought lipstick, nail polish, a turtleneck to hide my neck, leggings, shorts, and, basically, I transformed into quite a decent-looking lady. Yeah. And, in short, it paid off, because if I hadn't

Speaker A

actually done it—and I even bought a separate fatbike for this whole thing, you know, with wide tires so I could ride properly off-road. I was planning my route through such, well, villages, really remote ones, but even that didn't save me from running into the

Speaker A

cops. Yeah. But thankfully, I was disguised, so they didn't stop me; they just drove right past me. There were a few patrol cars that simply drove past me and that was it. So, for anyone interested, keep that in mind. It’s a

Speaker A

very good tool that, overall, adds a lot of confidence. I was worried that if they stopped me, for example, and asked a question, my voice could still give me away, how much of a good time was it?

Speaker A

That would’ve been the end of it, I think, but I don't know, it really gave me this illusion of confidence and safety, yeah. I wasn't really expecting to run into them at all, because, like I said, I was riding through such

Speaker A

wilderness, like, I wasn't supposed to meet anyone, but I did, and I got lucky thanks to my disguise. Yeah. Plus, I have a thin build, so it actually fit me really well. I also had a little purse, a women’s backpack, and, like,

Speaker A

seriously, there was just no way to pick on it. I mean, it really just looked like some lady riding a bike.

Speaker A

Everything was spot on, long hair, like, I had wigs on. Well, it actually turned out great. Yeah. And in the end, well, I hobbled to the starting point.

Speaker A

Yeah. Thankfully, there were people who agreed to help me get a bit closer. I mean, I didn't use the mail, like how guys use Nova Poshta to send their gear closer so they don't have to travel with backpacks and all that suspicious

Speaker A

stuff. But a kind person agreed to drive it directly there for me. So I rode my bike there. Yeah. It was just that, well, going there by car wasn't an option anymore, because it was risky. And so I arrived there on my bike. I

Speaker A

just left the bike there in the end. It was a one-time thing, but it was definitely worth it. They brought my gear, I changed into it, done deal.

Speaker A

Mosquitoes bit me while I was changing. So, by the way, on the topic of mosquito repellent sprays, take several bottles, because one wasn't enough for me. Even with a 50% DEET concentration, it wears off really fast because you're sweating, and if it rains, it washes

Speaker A

off quickly, so you need to reapply often, meaning you definitely need to take a few cans. Yeah. Uh, I got into my gear and took some water with me. I really took a good amount of water. My pack ended up being about 20 kg at the

Speaker A

start. And probably eight of that was just water. And as for how I was dressed, I had a summer thermal base layer, and over that, some sturdy, heavy-duty construction-style pants, they were just bomb. I climbed through such thickets in them, and my legs were

Speaker A

completely unscathed. Not even a scratch from the raspberry.

Speaker A

start. And probably eight of that was just water. And as for how I was dressed, I had a summer thermal base layer, and over that, some sturdy, heavy-duty construction-style pants, they were just bomb. I climbed through such thickets in them, and my legs were

Speaker A

completely unscathed. Not even a scratch from the raspberry bushes or anything. Really cool. On top, I had a thin nylon jacket. It was purely just so mosquitoes wouldn't bite through, because when you have thermals on with a second layer over them, and you're

Speaker A

moving constantly, the fabric slides, so horseflies and mosquitoes can't get through. There was just a swarm of them . So you really need to take this seriously, because they get so annoying , and when everything starts itching, it's demoralizing. Well, something like

Speaker A

that. I also had a head net on, a mosquito net that went down to my neck.

Speaker A

It’s like you put it on, like a little bag. I recommend a wide-brimmed hat so it holds the net 360 degrees around, because a cap only holds the net in front, and it can touch your ears, so they can bite you through the

Speaker A

net. That was quite unpleasant. So yeah . Anyway, I started trudging along, just kept walking. I had heard that guys on these hikes, one way or another , use trails and roads where border patrol might be driving back and forth.

Speaker A

And, uh, I didn't understand why. I mean, I was just sitting at home, and I genuinely didn't get it, like, why use trails? Why not just walk through the brush? But then, when I got there myself and started walking through the

Speaker A

brush, that same brush where every few meters there’s a fallen tree that you have to step over, climb over, or crawl under with a 20-kilogram backpack. And I immediately understood why the guys use the trails. I got through a few of

Speaker A

those sections, the really rough ones, and in general, I started getting really bold. And just walking along the trails. But the advantage of a solo hike is that when you go as a group, first of all, you make more noise, and

Speaker A

second, when you simply want to listen, you have to stop your group every single time. Right. So you stop yourself, you stop your group, and you listen. And then you start moving again . When you’re solo, you can easily

Speaker A

stop every 10 or 20 steps if you’re on a trail or a dangerous section to listen for anyone coming. So yeah.

Speaker A

Because there were situations where, well, I was really close, but I could hear the vehicles they use to get around; there were zones where there were locals, and zones where only the border patrol was driving. Right. And you could hear them in advance. By the

Speaker A

way, the forest muffles sound very well , and they were, well, relatively close in the end when I first started hearing them over the wind and the rustling of the trees. So, that’s something else to keep in mind. It was morally

Speaker A

difficult to hike solo because you're alone, but the advantage is that it’s easier and more convenient to listen to everything happening around you. So yeah. Thankfully, there was service in some places. Uh, just in case, your first aid kit should definitely include

Speaker A

a good sedative. I, I, I had Phenibut. It really helped me out a lot a few times. Yeah. And it's advisable to take , oh boy, it's advisable to get some SIM cards from operators that have good , the best possible coverage in Ukraine

Speaker A

. One of them is Kyivstar, another, I don't know, maybe some Vodafone. Well, although I had Life, it was more or less okay, well, I did have a connection up to a certain point, like, yeah. But that coverage was enough for

Speaker A

me, because the first two days were very difficult. The first day, anyway, I didn't cover much ground, because, well, I started late. Yeah. And at night, a downpour started. At night, a downpour started. My tent was pretty decent, like double-layered, sealed,

Speaker A

good, but I freaked myself out, thinking that if I got wet, I could get pneumonia, and that I'd be in serious trouble in that forest. I really psyched myself out over that, and I just didn't want to crawl out of the

Speaker A

tent for about an hour in the morning. Also, mice were attacking me there at night, running around and squeaking near the tent. I thought they would chew through the tent and I'd be screwed. I was shooing them away.

Speaker A

Anyway, I couldn't sleep at all the first night. Yeah. But in the morning, despite the downpour, I lay there, zoned out, and realized there was nothing else I could do. I mean, I had no other choice. As soon as the rain

Speaker A

let up just a little bit, literally, I jumped out of the tent and quickly packed everything up. Yeah. And I started pushing forward along the route . Yeah. And I'd been walking for, well, just 10 minutes through the greenery. I

Speaker A

was completely soaked from those thickets. Yeah. But because I was moving, I felt generally warm due to the physical exertion. Yeah. And I didn't care about the wet clothes, I'd deal with whatever happens in the evening. I did have a spare change of

Speaker A

clothes just in case, so I was counting on that, which calmed me down a little bit. So I just kept on trekking. I was walking, of course, through terrible thickets. It was, honestly, a shock.

Speaker A

Like, I never thought such thickets even existed. Yeah. But at the same time, this wilderness gave me a sense of confidence, because, well, I don’t know who you’d have to be to run into such thickets to chase down Hilles.

Speaker A

Yeah. I saw deer there. Yeah. And, well , in the end, slowly and with difficulty, I reached the first water obstacle. Yeah. And, well, where I expected to see a bridge, I didn’t find one. And at that moment, it was

Speaker A

one of the most critical points because it was quite wide, and I don’t know how to swim; I’m generally afraid of water. Yeah. And I just started to have a full-blown panic attack. I literally didn't know what to do. I just started

Speaker A

walking back and forth along this river . And, well, I really didn't know what to do. I was just having such a stupid panic. I ended up wandering an extra 4 kilometers pointlessly through terrain where it was really hard to walk. Plus,

Speaker A

I had a heavy backpack. So I racked up those useless 4 kilometers while in a panic. At the same time, I was messaging my friends, asking them to help because this was a total nightmare . Eventually, I took my first Phenibut

Speaker A

pill. I sat in the bushes and calmed down a little. The guys supported me.

Speaker A

We started coordinating and thinking about how I could cross. In the end, I had to cross a puddle to get to the ford. Yeah. But I was scared. I stepped in there. I felt my leg sinking in. And

Speaker A

in the end, I just said I wasn't going in there. Yeah. And we rethought the plan a little bit. We could try in a different spot. I ended up building something out of reeds, and I also had two support sticks that I was leaning

Speaker A

on. Yeah. And I built a crossing across the river using those reeds. Yeah. But in the end, when the reeds ran out closer to the center, I still had to step into the water and carefully lower myself down, leaning on the sticks and

Speaker A

distributing my weight so I wouldn't sink too deep into the silt and get stuck. Yeah. It turned out to be about 30 centimeters of water. Yeah. And somehow, I managed to ford the river.

Speaker A

And after that crossing, after that first obstacle, I got such a confidence boost; like, I was literally feeling euphoria because I had driven myself into such a moral hole over this obstacle, thinking that it was my first one and I couldn't even overcome it. I

Speaker A

mean, I had these really, well, not naive, but just plain stupid thoughts of just going to the traffic cops and turning myself in at the village, because I really had pushed myself into a very dark place mentally at that

Speaker A

moment. Yeah. But thankfully there were pills, and thankfully the guys supported me, for which I'm very grateful, they helped me handle the whole situation, and I overcame that obstacle. And after that, I was riding on a high, pushing forward really hard.

Speaker A

Right up to the next obstacles, but overall, there weren't really any problems like that there. That was the most difficult obstacle. Yeah. And I started, uh, I passed another section with this creepy thicket, it was supposed to be a trail, but the trail

Speaker A

was such that every few meters, well, there was just tree after tree lying there, tree after tree. And it's very difficult to move through such terrain.

Speaker A

Not only is it very time-consuming and exhausting, because, well, it really wears you out to go around them through the bushes or climb over them, you have to keep lifting your legs really high, plus the grass is thick, so simply

Speaker A

moving a leg forward on a flat surface becomes very hard because the grass is so thick and the backpack is heavy.

Speaker A

Yeah. And while crossing another patch of this unpleasant thicket, I hear two dirt bikes riding back and forth in the direction I was heading. I don't know who they were in the end, but I assume they were probably locals. Yeah. But in

Speaker A

the end, I sat and waited about 10 minutes after they passed, so as not to accidentally run into them. Then I emerge from this, from this thicket onto the trail where they were riding.

Speaker A

And that road, man, it was just terrible. Like, it had rained, and all that black soil was mixed up, it was just such a mess there, horrible. Yeah.

Speaker A

But eventually, after that long stretch of thicket, on which I spent a lot of time, I decide to get bold and just head down the trail. I’m pushing down this trail they were riding on, and I'm just listening as I go. Like, I’d

Speaker A

walk 20 meters, stop, and listen. Walked another 20 meters, stopped, and listened. Yeah. And that’s how I slowly made my way along that part of the route. Yeah. And I came out to the forest. To the forest. I reached the

Speaker A

forest. A nice, cool pine forest that you could see right through. Yeah. And there were blueberries there. How delicious those blueberries were.

Speaker A

Simply impossible to put into words. Uh , well, I brought freeze-dried food with me, but I didn't touch it, you know. I mean, I started eating them, but because I was saving water, I didn't want to waste it on the dry food

Speaker A

. Yeah. Because I realized that, well, water was a real problem there. Yeah. And I tried to stretch my water supply as much as possible. Well, in the end, my water consumption was somewhere around, depending on how hot it was and

Speaker A

how open the terrain was. I consistently went through two to three liters of water a day. Yeah. And the freeze-dried stuff, I didn't start eating that until the third day, because on the way, I don't know who did it. I really don't know who did it.

Speaker A

But a big thank you to the person who made that spring. Someone had built a small stone well out in the thickets.

Speaker A

And it just sits there; there's no path to it, it's just out there in the wilds . Yeah. But I had information from friends that it was there. Yeah. And it was like a strategic point, you know, for me with that well for refueling.

Speaker A

Yeah. And basically, I kept going, well , there wasn't really anything else of interest. Sometimes trucks would drive by. Yeah, uh, I didn't run into anyone on foot. You can hear the trucks from far away, so it was generally possible

Speaker A

to hide. There were places where, if needed, I could run and hit the dirt.

Speaker A

Yeah. And so with these monotonous treks through the forests. Through the bushes, I reached, it turns out, the third day when I was walking through the pine forest. Uh, well, again, the pine forest was very open, you could

Speaker A

see really well. Uh, yeah, but there were some well-worn roads there, sort of. On the whole, there were few fresh tracks there, more or less. Yeah. But I decided to just trek along the paths because I looked, well, compared how

Speaker A

long and hard it is to walk through the thick brush versus how fast it is on the path. Yeah. And I just made the decision to, whenever possible, be bold and always walk on the paths. Yeah. And so I start pushing through this forest

Speaker A

along the roads. And I'm thirsty. I still had, well, I had a hydration bladder in my bag, but it was empty, I hadn't gotten used to using it yet. I just took my backpack off every time to drink water. By the way, speaking of

Speaker A

the backpack. If you aren't adapted or used to it, the top backpack straps and the lumbar support will chafe. In the end, of course, after a few days, I put some bandages on there, but it still wasn't quite right. Uh, If I had...

Speaker A

here's what I thought: if I had a foam sleeping pad with me (because I had an inflatable one, but if I'd had a foam one), I probably would have cut off a few pieces of that pad and put them

Speaker A

under the straps to increase the pressure area on my shoulders, because I'm bony myself, and the backpack was heavy, and it was really chafing my shoulders quite badly. And the lumbar support was chafing really badly too.

Speaker A

It was burning like fire, and on the last day I was even popping painkillers . So. And so it turns out that every time I really wanted to drink, I had to take the backpack off. It wastes energy

Speaker A

, because all that lifting and lowering of the backpack is really exhausting and reduces the total daily mileage.

Speaker A

Unnecessary movement. So. I had to take off the backpack, sit down, drink, then put the backpack back on and walk again . Because of that, I didn't drink often , because I tried to spend as little time as possible on it, like doing

Speaker A

fewer of these iterations, so as not to chafe my shoulders even more. So. And through this forest, I was pushing myself to the max, really, to the absolute maximum. I was constantly spurring myself on to go faster, faster

Speaker A

, to quicken my pace, because, well, trails are trails, and it was very visible there. I didn't stare into the trees, maybe there were trail cameras somewhere. I have absolutely no idea.

Speaker A

So. And at one point, I'm walking through this forest and I hear a sound behind me. I turn my head, and I see a red spot right there. I mean, it was a long, there was a fairly long stretch

Speaker A

of road that was visible. I turn around , see a red spot, and hear an engine roaring, so I quickly jerk to the left.

Speaker A

There were some low little pine trees there. I dove right into these pine trees, dropped my backpack, ran a bit further, and also collapsed into the greenery. Anyway, I lay there for a minute, and it drove past. Thankfully, I gathered that it

Speaker A

didn't notice me. I don't know who that was. Well, uh, civilians or soldiers. So. Well, I lay there for a while; he didn't stop, he just drove on, I laid there for another couple of minutes catching my breath, then got up, picked

Speaker A

up my backpack, and kept going, basically. So. And I kept moving through the forest at the same pace.

Speaker A

Yeah. Checking my phone map along the way. Oh, by the way, I had a compass. I bought a cool compass for 25 bucks. I thought, you know, to save phone battery and power bank juice, I'd just use the compass, you know. Well, in the

Speaker A

end, I tried walking with it at first. I set the azimuth on the compass, started walking, and ended up a kilometer off course, deep in the thickets. A whole kilometer through the thickets. Not on a trail, but literally

Speaker A

through the thickets. I was so pissed off that I shoved that compass deep into my bag and didn't take it out for the rest of my trip. Yeah. I navigated entirely by phone. I had a 27,000 mAh power bank. It was more than enough,

Speaker A

honestly. So, after that first vehicle that I had to run into the bushes from, I kept pushing through that same forest . Yeah. And, well, my water was running low. Since the forest was quite open, as I walked along the path, I kept

Speaker A

looking left and right, scouting for any bottles. I did find bottles with water. I'd check them out visually.

Speaker A

I’d sniff them to make sure they didn’t stink or anything. If it looked okay, I’d drink it. And overall, I managed to save my own water pretty well that way. Yeah. At first, I was squeamish and scared, thinking what

Speaker A

if I get diarrhea or something else if I drink it. But eventually, I realized that my desire not to drink swamp water was stronger than the fear of some unknown water. Yeah. So I ended up drinking that bottled water, and

Speaker A

everything was fine. Yeah. And along with that, I kept on walking through the forest. Walking, walking, walking, walking, walking, walking, walking. I wasn’t really wasting time on breaks, even though I really wanted to sit down in the middle of the woods to rest.

Speaker A

Yeah. But I understood that I was in a really, really bad spot, where even if I heard a vehicle, I might not have time to run away because the forest was just way too open. Yeah. And I’m pushing it to the max, like, really

Speaker A

moving, and just as I exit this forest into a patch of wind-fallen trees, an open area, I hear two motorcycles, plain and simple. I mean, if I had stopped there just to drink some water, they would have already—well, I

Speaker A

wouldn’t have made it, and they would have ridden right out onto me while I was in that open forest. So I hear these two bikes, and I immediately jump down into the brush behind some logs, backpack and all. I just flopped down

Speaker A

flat right there. Yeah. And they were, well, about five meters away from me, it turns out. They just drive by, two motorcycles. I saw one of them was dressed in military-style gear. Most likely, they were State Border Guard

Speaker A

Service. So they rode past me. I stayed lying there for about five minutes too.

Speaker A

I could also hear machinery working nearby. Well, they’re hauling out timber, logging it. There are a lot of clearings, actually. Yeah. Anyway, I laid low for a bit. This was right by that, by that, by that spring, that

Speaker A

source. My friends and I named it Achilles 'Spring. Yeah. And, in short, I eventually reached that well, that spring. It was right in the thickets, in some really dense bushes. Awesome.

Speaker A

So I climbed in there, went a bit deeper inside, and set up in the bushes . I took out all my bottles there.

Speaker A

Containers. This was, it turns out, the third day. The third day, when I finally started eating the freeze-dried meals, because before that, I hadn't really wanted to eat much. Yeah, until the third day. Yeah. So I set up there,

Speaker A

drank the leftover water I had, boiled some, made myself some coffee, brewed a pack of instant noodles, and brewed a freeze-dried meal. I had 10 of these meals, five buckwheat, five mashed potatoes. The mashed potatoes were good , the buckwheat not so much. Yeah. So I

Speaker A

brewed some mashed potatoes, sat there for a while. Surprisingly, by the way, in this area, for some reason, there were no mosquitoes. I don’t know why.

Speaker A

Yeah. And those friends of mine that had been hounding me throughout the entire route finally let me sit and eat in peace. Yeah. Ah, sat, ate, had a real rest, it was a total morale boost.

Speaker A

I mean, this was, like, a really important checkpoint for me. This well was a very important checkpoint. Like, I reached it, drank my fill, ate, and rested. For about an hour while I was sitting there, several trucks loaded

Speaker A

with pine logs drove by. Yeah. Well, I could sort of see what was happening through the foliage. Then I took all my bottles, whatever I had, and filled them up with water. And this time, in short, I filled my hydration bladder,

Speaker A

ran the tube out through the bag, and walked with it like an experienced hiker. A very handy thing, by the way.

Speaker A

I took a 2-liter one. I’d suggest getting a 3-liter one right away, so it lasts the whole day. Refill from the bottles in the morning and off you go.

Speaker A

Very convenient stuff. No need to take it off or chafe your shoulders. No need to waste time or energy on that. A hydration bladder is top tier, a must-have; it doesn't cost much and is super useful. Yeah. Ah, but I made a

Speaker A

mistake. Uh, maybe it was a mistake, maybe not, I don't know. Like, I should have definitely stuck to the trails and roads for the sake of speed and energy, but I decided I was the smartest one. " Let me try to deviate from the route."

Speaker A

So I went on through the thicket right from the side of that well. And the thicket there—how to describe it— there was a pile of broken trees, just layered on top of each other. Plus, there was grass growing in little

Speaker A

mounds. I mean, it's uneven, uneven ground you're walking on. It's earth with bumps, you know, mounds of grass.

Speaker A

You step on this clump of grass and, with the weight of the backpack and yourself, this clump just compresses down. So it’s like you’re walking on steps. You’re walking on flat ground, but it feels like you're climbing stairs or using a stepper. And

Speaker A

this thing—well, the grass is thick, naturally. It’s even hard just to lift your foot. And it was so slow and exhausting that it was just brutal.

Speaker A

Because of this terrain, I got into a real bind since I didn't manage to find a decent spot before sunset. And that was one of the fatal mistakes I made on the trip because I didn't find a proper

Speaker A

, dry place to spend the night. And because of this stupid terrain, I had to set up on moss. That was a fatal mistake. Even though my tent floor was airtight and everything was solid. I slept on an inflatable sleeping pad. I

Speaker A

had a good sleeping bag. And I slept in my clothes, zipped up inside the sleeping bag. At night, because I was on moss, dampness seeped into the tent.

Speaker A

The air was very humid. Because it was humid, the temperature felt much lower than it actually was. Meaning the air was cooling me down much more intensely . And even though I was zipped up in my sleeping bag, I still couldn't sleep.

Speaker A

My nose was so cold, I don't know, it felt like autumn. Yeah. And because of that nonsense, I’d just start to fall asleep and immediately wake up from the cold. I couldn't get any proper sleep, basically. Yeah. So that turned out to

Speaker A

be a night where I hardly slept at all. But even despite that, apparently, just lying there and resting, even while conscious, still played its part because in the morning I packed up and headed out just fine. I mean, I didn't

Speaker A

feel any severe physical exhaustion. I actually hiked along quite quickly. I finally made it out of that area. I did encounter some sketchy, half-burned windfalls along the way with a ton of timber that I had to constantly go

Speaker A

around, climb over, or crawl under. And crawling under them with a backpack is just a nightmare. Having to crouch down , lie down somewhere, squeeze through, and get back up, it's really, really tough. Especially with a backpack loaded with water. I had just refilled

Speaker A

completely from that well from scratch. Yeah. And the backpack was very heavy again. Yeah. I kept on trekking. I kept on trekking. And on my way I had uh, that was the first obstacle in the form of barbed wire. Yeah. But thanks to my

Speaker A

friends who had already gone through that experience and almost got caught there, I knew where I could bypass that thing. On the community-generated uh, can I talk about the map or not? Hello?

Speaker A

Well, tell me. Actually, it’s all there on the community map. So that’s why, in a way, that map really helps. So I managed to bypass that first barbed wire obstacle, crossing a water barrier too. I found a good spot to cross over

Speaker A

on a log. Trekking poles, by the way, are a huge help on a hike, especially when you need to overcome obstacles where you really need to keep your balance, because with a backpack on your back—it's easy without one, but

Speaker A

with a backpack, it’s really hard to keep your balance on something like a log when you're walking across it. Dry pine poles are light and they really help out in moments like those. So, in the end, I crossed that little thing

Speaker A

and started noticing things in the area , things on the trees that looked like beehives. Yeah. But these hives were a bit strange. They had no bees, just hanging on the trees, like, nailed there, and that was it. I was walking

Speaker A

up to them, looking, well, I didn't notice any signs of anything like trail cameras. So I just walked past them, yeah, and that was that. And, well, as for the clearings, well, my friends, people avoid clearings. People advise

Speaker A

avoiding clearings, but my desire not to drink from a swamp was stronger than that fear. And I had the nerve to walk along the clearings and look for bottles of water. And this nerve of mine led to the fact that, in the end,

Speaker A

I made it out, and I still had 3 liters of good water in reserve. There was a moment when I was walking near another clearing. I see a Coca-Cola bottle standing under a tree, and there was some murky content inside. As it turned

Speaker A

out later, it was lemonade. So, I even managed to find some lemonade to drink in the woods. Yeah. It was delicious, the rascal. Yeah. And when I walked up to that bottle, I saw a cap sticking out from under the moss. Yeah. And when

Speaker A

I pulled on that cap, I pulled out a liter-and-a-half bottle of clean, cold water that someone had stashed under the moss. Honestly, I found someone's stash. Yeah. Because, well, workers come there to work. And they naturally take water with them. So they, well,

Speaker A

some throw it away, some hide it so it doesn't heat up in the sun. I mean, how happy I was when I found that bottle of water, it's impossible to put into words. I just felt like Stas Asket, who

Speaker A

drags some food from a base, or something like that. Yes, thank you. Ah, yeah, that's fine, thanks. Uh, and in short, I felt like Asket, who drags some products from a base, and shoots videos about them. And I, in short, filmed, well, like, I took

Speaker A

all this water, all these bottles, ran away, ran away into the woods, and started filming a review of the water I found. So, today's unboxing is water.

Speaker A

Yes, yes, yes. Exactly, exactly. Yes, I was filming an unboxing of water, in short. So, in that joy—it was truly an unforgettable emotion, when you’re just walking, and you, well, you’re constantly thinking about how you’re low on water, right, and then you find

Speaker A

this whole setup, and it’s just, like , it’s a shame I had to delete all those videos later, unfortunately, to my great regret. But, it was insane. I was just so happy about those finds.

Speaker A

Yeah. Uh, and, well, I mean, it gave me confidence that I’d be able to get out and wouldn’t have to drink that stinky swamp water. That really kept me going mentally. So I was walking and walking further along the trails,

Speaker A

getting bolder, back and forth, and near the next clearing, uh, I reach another clearing, and it turns out there’s this pretty open intersection there. With this clearing, like. And I’m walking, it turns out, on the right side, and to my left is this

Speaker A

clearing. And I stop, long story short, by a tree. Just, like, at random. Something just popped into my head. Let me check, like, let me look at the map to see where I am. I open the map and

Speaker A

start standing there, staring blankly at it. I’m looking, looking, studying it, seeing where I need to head next.

Speaker A

And in that moment, I hear someone’s voice. And my heart sinks into my boots . I immediately pressed myself against the tree, dropped to my knees, and started looking around, like, I didn’t understand where that voice was even coming from. And I noticed in

Speaker A

that moment, just peeking out from behind the tree, someone about thirty meters away, a border guard, dressed in military gear, like in digital camo, and he just walks out of that intersection, from the turn, and is just walking along, grumbling something

Speaker A

to himself under his breath, like. I don’t know, well, I didn’t see a second person he was talking to. I don’t know what prompted him to grumble that something under his breath that I could hear. I honestly don’t

Speaker A

understand what that was. Like, maybe he was talking on the phone, or on a radio, I have no idea, but I didn’t hear a radio on him. Uh He ends up walking, looks in my direction for a second, didn’t see me, and kept on

Speaker A

going. I look where he’s going, and there was a motorcycle parked there. He gets on that motorcycle, starts it up, and drives away. I’m still a bit in shock about what happened and how lucky I actually got. I don’t know, it’s

Speaker A

such a coincidence that you start believing in some kind of higher power. I don’t know, it’s just the sequence of events, that I heard him first, even though he was alone; it’s unclear why he was even talking or

Speaker A

making those sounds. It’s unclear. So , I quickly got up, ran across the intersection into the brush, and kept moving through the greenery. But even so, regardless of all that, I kept walking through the brush along the road, still looking out for bottles. I

Speaker A

passed through that clearing and came out into another one. Yeah. And at that moment, the guys who set up the trail cameras really outplayed me, because there’s a clearing on the right, and on the left, there’s this nice,

Speaker A

pleasant bit of greenery. I thought, " Oh, I’ll dive in there and just keep going that way." And up ahead, there was supposed to be a crossing, like a little bridge. So, I was walking parallel to the road, heading that way.

Speaker A

Yeah. I dive into that greenery and see another beehive in a tree. I think, "Oh well fine another like allegedly empty hive." I get a bit closer, go a bit to the left, and see that hanging on a wire near the hive is a cool

Speaker A

little red thing that looks like a trail camera. Yeah. But since I was already, most likely, in its range and it probably already saw me, I stood there, made some faces, waved, and jumped into the thicket. Anyway, I went

Speaker A

even further left, straight into the deep brush. Into the brush. I decided to go around, not to take that bridge, because if those guys saw a photo from there, they would’ve figured out where I was going and where I’d

Speaker A

likely be crossing. Yeah. So I decided to just forget about that bridge. I headed into the thicket and just found a way to cross through the greenery.

Speaker A

Yeah. Naturally, those trucks kept driving by periodically, hauling those logs. But, thankfully, I didn't hear any more people nearby for a while.

Speaker A

There were only these work vehicles that were hauling logs. I kept trudging along these clearings. Sometimes I had to run across because, well, there was a lot of open ground. Besides the clearings, there were also these fields , like, that I had to run straight

Speaker A

across. I saw some kind of hut, like, one that was completely falling apart. I don't know what it was doing there.

Speaker A

Out in such a remote area, like, you know. Uh, I trudged on further. I honestly don't remember where that was.

Speaker A

I need to look at the map. Ah, tu-tu-tu-tu-tu. Hold on a second. I need a little time to get my bearings.

Speaker A

Yes, okay, no problem. Do you know where I was? Yes, I said, okay, no problem.

Speaker A

Uh-huh. I probably should have put this on a paper map to keep my orientation.

Speaker A

So, right now. Tu-tu-tu-tu-tu. Tu-tu-tu-tu-tu. Ah, well, overall, I get it. In the end, it was just the usual monotonous movement through the greenery. I was crossing another, uh, well, I just didn't really manage to go in a straight line there. I was walking

Speaker A

more in zigzags there. I had another water obstacle that I crossed via a beaver dam. Huge respect to the beavers , they save lives. The Belarusian ones really help out with their little structures, because, well, I've had to

Speaker A

cross over them more than once, since sometimes the obstacle is very wide, very deep, and, well, the beavers saved me perfectly. Yeah. So I crossed this obstacle, and this was probably already closer to, let's see. This was the end

Speaker A

of the fourth day, probably, yes, closer to the end of the fourth day. So I cross this obstacle and end up in a beautiful field. Next to this field is another clearing. So, again, I’m walking carefully near the clearing,

Speaker A

just like my usual routine. I’m walking, looking for bottles. Oh, by the way, a fun fact. I found more vodka bottles than water or soda bottles. It seems the workers out there guzzle it instead of water. Yeah. And I arrive at

Speaker A

... Yes, yes, I suppose I’m walking. Maybe, by the way, that border guard who passed 30 meters away from me...

Speaker A

Maybe he was also, like, tipsy. Yeah. And that’s exactly how it all turned out, the way it did, thank God. Ah, I arrive, it turns out, past this clearing and see two five-liter jugs standing under the birch trees. My

Speaker A

heart skips a beat, but a second later I realize that it’s not April, not at all, that I’m, well, just a little bit late. Yeah. Someone had put down two five-liter jugs a long time ago, apparently when they were at this

Speaker A

clearing. Uh, they were collecting sap and, well, they forgot them. So there, in short, were two full jugs of this fermented sap, with a bunch of flies and all sorts of junk in it. I looked at all that and shed a single tear. And

Speaker A

then I just moved on. And I was actually, well, I’ve never even seen such blowdowns in pictures as the ones I encountered next. These were, well, like very, very thick, huge trees, uprooted completely from the ground.

Speaker A

Some of them were snapped in half; it was a really large stretch, like, a really huge piece of land. Yeah. But I, well, it didn’t actually cause me any problems because it wasn’t like a super dense blowdown with a bunch of

Speaker A

small trees that you have to climb over . These were large trees, but there were relatively few of them, though it covered a large area. It was truly a mesmerizing sight, actually; I took some photos too, but I had to delete

Speaker A

them. Anyway, unfortunately, I ended up crossing my next water obstacle there without any problems. And I dove into the forest. Once again, I dove back into the thick forest. And my pre-final boss was waiting for me. A pre-final

Speaker A

boss in the form of a substantial patch of land covered in wild rosemary. But wild rosemary itself is generally okay.

Speaker A

But this wild rosemary was also a thing where, as I described before, it’s like grass on a mound; the ground is bumpy—hole, mound, hole, mound, hole, mound. And this wild rosemary was growing right on those mounds along with the grass. And it was all mixed up

Speaker A

. So you’re walking as if you’re constantly on stairs. Plus, there’s the wild rosemary. What is wild rosemary? It’s like grass, but the stems have something like bark on them, as if they were tree branches. And it, in short, it really grabs and wraps

Speaker A

around your leg. And my shoelaces were tied, so they were in a bow with an extra knot on top. And while I was going through this territory, I spent about an hour or an hour and a half walking through this zone. My pulse was

Speaker A

off the charts, I mean, I really wanted to cover as much ground as possible today, so that tomorrow I could actually make it out, like, completely.

Speaker A

I was rushing through this Labrador tea , it was already toward evening. Yeah. And I tied my shoelaces, like, three times. Like a bow, and then another knot on top of the bow. This Labrador tea just kept untying my laces. It was

Speaker A

just so physically exhausting, and those stupid laces kept annoying me constantly. Yeah. But, in the end, I managed to get through that brush. It was tough. Uh, my pulse was racing, just brutal. But I overcame that stretch and emerged from the brush zone

Speaker A

into an open, visible forest, and there were roads nearby. But the brush had worn me out so much that I just set up my tent by the nearest pine tree, though, well, if you looked closely, you could see the tent from the road.

Speaker A

But I still took my knife, cut off a few branches, uh, spruce, no, oak, and stuck them around the tent so it wouldn't stand out so much. Some kind of basic camouflage, like a simple element. Yeah. And then I just crashed.

Speaker A

I just passed out completely, slept like the dead, the spot was good, and overall it was dry. I managed to get some great sleep. Yeah. And thankfully, I didn't see or hear any drones.

Speaker A

Although a friend of mine, who went before me, heard them and likely spotted them, because he said one was circling above them. But that was near the first barbed wire fence. Yeah, I didn't stop in that zone, I pushed

Speaker A

through it quickly. Yeah. Uh, I slept, woke up the next day, already feeling really recharged. I mean, I was just completely focused on making it out. I get dressed and packed up. It was probably around five in the morning. I

Speaker A

get dressed, pack up, and start pushing on. Pushing on. I find a few more water bottles, which is always good news. I start walking along trails, but checking the route, I see I have to head into the woods. Still have to go

Speaker A

into the green. I head into the thicket . So, through the thicket, I reach another water barrier, but I didn't need to cross it. I just walked along the edge, along this thing, along the river, but through some really rough

Speaker A

brush, like, real thickets, man. And I came out into some kind of forest. It was, like, a burnt forest, some kind of burnt woods mixed with new greenery that managed to grow back after the fire. And, well, I gathered it was

Speaker A

planted, because, you know, it had these little mounds, like ridges. Usually, when a forest is planted, it’s like these artificial ridges, you know, and you’re constantly going up and down, up and down, like you’re walking on steps. Yeah. And this forest

Speaker A

was right next to a swamp. And, well, the terrain was mixed, you know; it seemed like a normal forest, but also swampy, and eventually I had to head right into the reeds, squelching through them, constantly watching my feet so I wouldn’t accidentally dive

Speaker A

into some drainage canal. Yeah. But, well, I didn't lose too much time on that either. The forest was, in short, square-like. Let’s take a square meter. And in this square meter, there’s a bunch of, uh, a bunch of

Speaker A

thin tree stems, like some kind of birch. Yeah. But really, really, really dense. With these thin stems, maybe, well, three centimeters thick. And there are just so many of them. And you’re walking as if, well, as if you’re in some jungle, constantly

Speaker A

pushing back these branches, you know, walking, passing through, crawling through them, and they keep getting tangled around your legs. Yeah. But, like, there was a significant chunk of the route with these kinds of plantations. And eventually, I finally

Speaker A

make it out onto a trail. Yeah. And because the forest was burnt, when I get out onto this trail, the forest is very easy to see through. Very easy.

Speaker A

Yeah. But thankfully, I’m watching the road, and I didn’t see a single fresh track. So, like, I’m walking along this road, really pushing, pushing with all my might, because I need to get out, I’m pumped up. I see

Speaker A

by the time that I’m making good progress overall. Yeah, and I’m actually getting out pretty early, you know. And I’m pushing along this road . Pushing, pushing, pushing, pushing.

Speaker A

It was a really nice sandy road there. Yeah. And I arrive in a pine forest, probably the final one. I saw beehives there again, but I didn't see any traps . I’m walking through this open, beautiful pine forest, and I see

Speaker A

movement ahead of me, but without any sound. And immediately, like, whoa, it was actually, like, scary. Because I didn’t, I didn’t understand what I saw; I saw movement, but I didn't know what it was. I stand there, looking

Speaker A

closely, and I see three massive elk. They were just so huge. I don't even know what to compare them to, but they were really huge moose. And, like, they moved so silently, probably just a few meters away from me. I mean, I was

Speaker A

walking, they heard me because they stood there watching me, but I didn't hear them at all. Even though they were huge, their bodies were really massive.

Speaker A

And yet, you couldn't hear them. They stood there, looked at me, and then just ran off somewhere. So, that’s what happened. They definitely gave me a good scare. At least until I realized what they were. Once they left, I kept

Speaker A

on stomping along. Again, there was some strange little forest, just dense with a bunch of bushes. Looking at the map, I saw some trails, like a path that just abruptly ends. I figured it was probably some kind of outpost for

Speaker A

the tough guys. So I decided to just go around it to be safe. I didn't know for sure, but I guessed as much because that path ended very, very suspiciously . So I ended up bypassing it on the

Speaker A

left side. Yeah. And I kept moving forward until I reached my final obstacle, which I had assumed would just be a few drainage canals I'd need to cross. Just walk across, you know, and that's it. But that wasn't the case

Speaker A

; I was already really close to the border. Just in case, so I wouldn't be shaking, I popped a Phenibut pill again . I already had no connection by then.

Speaker A

Meaning, since the last time I was in contact with the guys, I’ve been walking all these days with no signal at all, totally on my own. Yeah. And so , just in advance, I take that pill to keep myself calm. And I start

Speaker A

approaching the border, very, very carefully. I mean, I'm walking and making sure not to step on any branches . I'm watching exactly where I step so I only land on grass. Trying to barely touch any branches or dry trees, making

Speaker A

as little noise as possible, because I had some rough ideas of where their lookouts and all that stuff might be.

Speaker A

Yeah. Well, I was kind of carefully skirting around all this suspicious stuff; I heard some machinery working in the distance, right by the tape, and my mind started playing tricks on me. I thought maybe it was some kind of drone

Speaker A

, because it was buzzing here and there , like, changing direction. At first, I really thought it might be some kind of drone. But then, anyway, I said forget it and kept moving further toward the tape. There was such thick undergrowth,

Speaker A

like, seriously, real thickets. Which, overall, actually played into my hands. Yeah. Uh, I crossed the first canal, then I carefully crossed the second canal in different spots, you know. I had to look for, like, either a log or

Speaker A

just a dry spot to cross without getting my feet wet unnecessarily. Yeah . I had double-layer DexShell socks, but I still tried not to get my feet wet because, well, by the evening, you take your boot off and your whole foot

Speaker A

is all white and shriveled. I used " Sushkar" powder, by the way. It really helps. Yeah. And spare socks are a must . Yeah. Uh. I made it across the two canals. After them, I headed back into the greenery. I walked a little bit

Speaker A

through the green. And where my guys had passed just a year ago with nothing there, I saw the coveted barbed wire.

Speaker A

Three-story high barbed wire. Yeah. And behind it? Behind it, you couldn't see anything because it was set up, like, on an elevation. Yeah. In the end, well , the sound of the machinery I’d been hearing just got louder. I thought they

Speaker A

were laying this wire right then and there, somewhere to my left. Yeah. And I got a bit paranoid, thinking, like, that workers were busy there and there was movement back and forth. Yeah. But in the end, I carefully crawled out of

Speaker A

the greenery, checked left and right, and didn't see anyone. They had cleared everything pretty well right next to the wire, even though some small bushes had still sprouted near it. Yeah. Which , by the way, also played into my hands

Speaker A

. I peeked out, looked left and right, and there was no one. I saw the length of this wire and was, like, a little bit stunned, since I was on a little pill. Yeah. I probably would have been,

Speaker A

well, without it, I would’ve been totally screwed. And I realize that, finally, it wasn't for nothing that I’ve been lugging those extra 750 grams in my pack all these days. I take off the pack, pull out that very same

Speaker A

electrical-tape-wrapped Yata 300 bolt cutter, everyone's favorite. Yeah. Anyway, initially I thought maybe I should wait until evening, for it to get dark, and then, you know, do the snip-snip in the dark, but then I look at the time and realize that I’m only

Speaker A

increasing my risks by doing all that. Yeah. So I decide to just move. I check left and right one more time. No one’s there. I make a quick dash across the cleared area, the bushes right under the barbed wire, and I

Speaker A

start just hacking away at it, snip, snip. I mean, usually, like I heard the guys say, they build it in a pyramid shape. Not at all. It’s posts. On the posts, the barbed wire is just stretched out one above the other.

Speaker A

Three strands, like, about my height. Yeah. So I start, you know, really shredding it. Snip-snip-snip-snip-snip.

Speaker A

I take a little piece as a souvenir. I don’t know why. They probably wouldn’t have let me take it out anyway. Yeah. And so I start crawling under it, and since I’ve already jumped up to the wire and have been

Speaker A

cutting it for about a minute, I realize I can’t see what’s happening to my left or right. I mean, at any moment some guy could pop up from somewhere, so I start quickly crawling under the wire, getting my bag

Speaker A

through—I nicked the bag a little. Yeah. Whatever. I crawl under that wire , get to my feet, and see right in front of me that third barrier, which was supposed to be just a small canal, but they’d turned it into a

Speaker A

three-meter-deep trench. Yeah. Even being on pills, I was, to put it mildly , a bit stunned. I felt a bit disoriented because, well, again, water —I’m scared of water, I don’t know how to swim. I think, let me run

Speaker A

maybe 50 meters or so and see if I can find a narrower spot. Nothing, I ran quickly in a half-crouch. I realize it’s a total waste of time. I sit down on my butt, take off my bag quickly. I had dry bags. I take my

Speaker A

sleeping bag and inflatable pad out of one of the dry bags. I throw it away, I throw away the bolt cutter. Big mistake . I later regretted, by the way, that I threw away that inflatable pad and the

Speaker A

sleeping bag. A huge mistake. I empty out one dry bag completely, toss my phone inside, fill it with as much air as possible, and seal it shut. So I turn it into an air cushion, then I pull out the second one with my spare

Speaker A

clothes. I fill that one with as much air as I can, seal it too, and stuff it into my backpack. And so I end up with a backpack containing an inflated dry bag. And I also have a dry bag under my

Speaker A

other arm. Yeah. Then I just start slowly descending into this ditch, sliding down. Yeah. Uh, in the end, basically, I start moving. Well, I’m also shifting some of my weight onto the dry bags under my arms. I start

Speaker A

walking through the water on the bottom . I mean, the mud sucks me in a bit, but in the end, the water was about waist-deep. Thank goodness. So I reach the center and the water is up to my

Speaker A

waist. I quickly climb out, grab onto some grass, toss the bags up, scramble out of that ditch, and just bolt straight into the woods. Basically, right behind the ditch there’s a plowed strip from the Belarusians that they check to see where someone crossed

Speaker A

, so I bolted straight into the woods because I didn't actually know where the line was. Like, what if some guys were still patrolling the area? To be safe, I took off into the Belarusian forests. Blueberries were there to

Speaker A

greet me again. Yeah. But I couldn't have cared less about them. I ran and ran and ran, covered about a kilometer.

Speaker A

By the way, I realized that the equipment I heard rumbling was actually loggers in Belarus. Yeah. Uh, I ran to, well, I won't say where. I ran deep into the forest and saw signs with the phone number for the border outpost.

Speaker A

Yeah. But since I’m using my own SIM cards, I can only call emergency services. I can't call their number. So I start frantically calling emergency services. Yeah. But I overlooked one technical detail: it showed I was in roaming, and there’s no roaming for

Speaker A

Belarusians. That meant some carrier like Kyivstar was reaching that far, and I was connected through its roaming network. I start calling emergency services, our dispatcher picks up and asks: "Do you need assistance?" I say: "No, thank you, goodbye." So I walk a

Speaker A

little further and call again. In short , this lady answers again, asking again : "Do you need help?" I say: "No, thank you, goodbye." I hang up. I think: " Fine, okay, if I'm roaming, I'll call my friend and say:' Everything is fine

Speaker A

'." Like, reporting that I've already, you know, crossed over. So we called, chatted for a bit. Then I walk even deeper, in the direction of, well, RB, and the roaming signal disappears. The question is, why didn't you call me?

Speaker A

Why would I? So that I could call them for you. Well, I already had a plan, you know, I had come up with a plan that I was crossing over, so if I had called, right? How well, I didn't have any internet.

Speaker A

Well, they could have called your friend, the friend could have texted me , I would have passed it on, they would have come to get you, and that's it.

Speaker A

I honestly didn't think about that. I really just didn't think about it. My only plan was to call the emergency services. I called the emergency services. It really could have been done that way, right?

Speaker A

When you joined the group, I explained all of this, well, at least I should have explained it.

Speaker A

I wasn't in a state to make a 101% rational decision, so forgive me. So.

Speaker A

And I called my friend, in short, and joyfully reported the whole situation. So, in the end, why did I talk about Kyivstar? Because the Kyivstar roaming signal was reaching there, so, Kyivstar is definitely something you should get a SIM card for if you're planning an

Speaker A

exit, it will help you. Because, especially if you're going solo, you need a connection, like get in touch with friends who can help or give advice, they might even be able to ping your location. But again, just get in

Speaker A

touch, talk quickly, chop-chop, and get out of there as fast as you can from that spot with airplane mode turned on.

Speaker A

So. Uh, what? Oh, anyway, I walked deeper in, the roaming was lost. I caught a Belarusian tower signal. I call the emergency services and finally hear the voice of another person who starts speaking Russian. I say: "Is this Belarus?" He says: "Yes, this is

Speaker A

Belarus." I shout: "Hurray!" So, in short, I say: "Look, help me out, I've come to you here." And he asked me for my coordinates. I gave him precise coordinates. I was standing in an open area. A sandy one. I gave him exact

Speaker A

coordinates, right where I was standing , spot on. He wrote them down and said: "Wait there." Alright. And so, I, well, didn't just wait around. I quickly took off my pants and hung them up to dry. I was just running around in my thermal

Speaker A

gear. The sun was coming out periodically. I quickly set up, brewed myself some coffee, and made my last freeze-dried meal with mashed potatoes and meat. I didn't do that in vain, because afterwards, well, there wouldn't have been any options. While

Speaker A

the guys were driving over, I ate, it was great. I downed the coffee, and packed everything back up. So, I'm sitting and waiting for the guys.

Speaker A

Basically, I'm sitting there waiting, and I hear something driving, it's rumbling in the woods. Rum-rum-rum-rum.

Speaker A

After, I don't know, maybe 30 minutes, maybe an hour. Rum-rum, and a Bobik jeep drives out of the woods. So, the guys drive out, and I'm standing there jumping around with these pants, whistling and shouting, because they were far away. Yeah. But they noticed

Speaker A

me, stopped, and started turning around . I ran up to them. They eventually took me and asked where I had crossed.

Speaker A

We went back and arrived at our border strip. And, well, the guys recorded on the plowed ground where I had climbed over. Yeah. And we drove to the border outpost. I'm surprised by the condition of the roads in Belarus. It's really

Speaker A

cool. While we were driving there on the highways, it was just, honestly, top-notch. I don't know about other places, of course, but what I saw was great. We arrived at the border outpost . At first, when we were driving past

Speaker A

the outpost, I thought it might be some kind of weather or research center, it looked so beautiful, seriously. Yeah.

Speaker A

Then, when I realized it was a border outpost, I was shocked, because usually anything related to the army or the military looks all Soviet and run-down, you know. Yeah. And, well, the building was polished to such a shine, and the

Speaker A

premises we got into were just really beautiful, in short. Right. So they sat me down there and told me to wait. They put these cool, trendy bracelets on my wrists. Right. And told me to wait.

Speaker A

After a while, a guy came over, and we filled out some paperwork there. Well, I told him how it all happened. He recorded everything there. Then, uh, they fed me. And told me to wait, in short. This was probably already about

Speaker A

5:00 PM. Right. And, well, I understood there was some kind of convoy. They usually come by twice a day to pick people up. But, apparently, I wasn't quite lucky. Well, in the end, of course, I was lucky. Right. But at that

Speaker A

moment, I thought I was unlucky. So, uh , I had to wait, in short, until the very morning. Wait until the very morning. And they didn't come for me until morning, told me to take all the laces out of my pants, shorts, and all

Speaker A

that stuff, and my shoes. I did all that and put it in a bag. Right. And then the most interesting new procedure begins. They put a bag over my head.

Speaker A

And that's when I really started to panic, because, well, I’d never heard of that before. That was something new.

Speaker A

Right. And because I hadn’t slept all night, plus all those nerves, my stomach started churning. Right. And, anyway, with all that going on, they put me in a van, and we’re driving somewhere. I don’t know where we’re going. My stomach is just churning.

Speaker A

Every 30 seconds there’s some kind of movement, and it’s all accompanied by cramps. I was terrified that I’d just explode right there in the car while we were driving. Right. Plus, it’s unclear where they’re taking me or what’s happening, because I didn’t

Speaker A

expect them to put a bag, you know, a bag over my head. It disorients you very severely. Right. Anyway, they brought me somewhere. They led me carefully and made me stand against the wall. So we stood there for a while,

Speaker A

like waiting. And as I’m standing there, of course, I’m feeling all twisted up inside. And I start working myself up even more. I think, maybe they’ll take me to some basement now, and that’s it, the end of my story,

Speaker A

and me in general. I really worked myself up, anyway, but in the end we arrived at, well, at the place, in short, where they asked me all sorts of interesting questions. Different people , you know.

Speaker A

They asked me what I was doing, where I was, how I was. I told them everything, how it all happened. Yeah. Then there was a conversation with another respected and important person. He informed me about how things would proceed further. I

Speaker A

nodded and said thank you. And then they sent me, uh, to that beloved place for relaxation. For having conversations with myself. The local sanatorium, in short. Yeah. Well, I was lucky in that regard, because, well, on average, from what I heard, guys stay

Speaker A

there for 3-5 days, right. I was lucky because we were brought in. I stayed there, it turns out, on the day of arrival, well, maybe four hours, yeah, and the next day in the morning we were already, I mean, I spent less than half

Speaker A

a day there, probably. Yeah. And we were taken, in short, to be driven further. Naturally, all with bags on our heads. Yeah. The rules in the sanatorium were certainly interesting, but I didn't break them; I behaved diligently. Yeah. But it was amusing.

Speaker A

Uh-huh. Then, then we were taken, it turns out, all the way to the border everyone wants to reach. On the way, in short, we ended up stopping at a gas station for a smoke break. Plus they went and got us some food and water

Speaker A

there. Man, those sausages, those hot dogs were so delicious. It was just, at that moment, it’s impossible to describe in words. Yeah. And in the end , in short, while we were standing there waiting for all this food

Speaker A

commotion, they took us under escort to the restroom so we could tidy up a bit.

Speaker A

Yeah. Well, and somehow, long story short, one thing led to another, uh, they mentioned that you can't, well, shave, like, they don't allow razors or anything, like, you can't shave. So I asked why. And the person starts telling me that there was a claimant.

Speaker A

There was a precedent. Well, that is, this was already, like, when we arrived at the gas station, took off the bags, like, we were standing outside. Yeah.

Speaker A

And, in short, it turns out the guy is telling me about a situation where there was a dude who was brought to this gas station in the exact same way.

Speaker A

Yeah. And they took him to, uh, powder his nose. And one of these geniuses, I don’t know where he was planning to go, or what he was expecting, but instead of just shaving his face, he also started, in short, shaving his, uh

Speaker A

, privates, his crotch area. Right. And, well, he was clearly in a hurry, obviously. And he, well, he nicked himself somewhere in that same spot. And a situation arose where, in short, they actually had to save him, because, well, I gathered he’d

Speaker A

splattered everything with blood. Right . Uh, and, in short, well, they had to save him. Right. And after that, in short, that case, all of this is forbidden and shouldn't be done. People sometimes forget where they are and,

Speaker A

well, what they are actually doing. So that’s why, don’t be like that, for those planning to go there. Don’t forget where you are.

Speaker A

Look, they brought us sausages. We because of people like that, they banned shaving, they banned using phones on the way, and now it’s even come down to bags. Well yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker A

I don’t know how these people go out and pull stuff like that. Because after them, others will follow, and the attitude towards them changes. Why do they set up their own fellow countrymen? How is that possible?

Speaker A

First, some people filmed out the window, so they banned phones; another told someone where he saw something.

Speaker A

They started checking bags. Another shaved his junk, so they banned shaving . I don’t know what’s next; I can’t imagine what else they could come up with.

Speaker A

I don’t know, I don’t know what these people have in their heads. In short, yeah. Well, never mind. Like, they exist, so that's that. What can you do? Nothing to be done about it.

Speaker A

Right. Uh, in the end, we, in short, ate great, we were all positive. Feeling charged up? We’re heading on to the first Polish checkpoint, hoping that, like, now this is finally going to be over, back and forth. And we had

Speaker A

reserved tickets for hotels, for buses from Warsaw, wherever the eyes might wander. Well, everyone decided where they were going. So we arrive there, probably around 12 at night. Right.

Speaker A

Well, it was already late, in short. Right. Uh, we get on the bus, we drive there to, well, we pass the Belarusian checkpoint, we pull into Okay. Okay, Novoris. Uh, we arrive, then, at the Polish checkpoint. They, well, these

Speaker A

Poles start asking us where we’re going, how much money we have, why are we traveling, what for? So. Naturally, everyone there, like, explains where they are headed. None of us planned on staying in Poland. I mean, everyone was

Speaker A

traveling to other countries for their own business. And in the end, they only let one person through who was flying to Istanbul. To all the others, they just said: "Get lost, go back." Yes, by the way, after this situation, some

Speaker A

guys from Belarus told me the proper procedure. So I think this information will be useful to everyone. The first rule is to have at least 1,000 dollars on you for deportation, to show the Poles. The second rule: don't say you

Speaker A

are staying in any European country at all. Just say, for example, Istanbul, Serbia, and so on.

Speaker A

Yes. So, the more cash you have with you, the better. Of course, taking a lot of cash on a trip is not ideal either. If there are any options to get it in Belarus, well, that will only work in your favor. So. Uh, the person

Speaker A

they let through, by the way, I think had more cash. Well, uh, I had 600 with me and a few thousand more on my cards.

Speaker A

Well, uh, I mentioned that, like. But apparently, it didn't matter at all. I mean, they turned us all away, except for the one guy flying to Istanbul. So.

Speaker A

I mean, it seems it also matters if your overall goal is the European Union . So they turned us away. It's already, like, nighttime by then. I'm incredibly sleepy. And we're sitting at their reception area. In short, the lady

Speaker A

there told us that we were waiting. For a bus back. So. And she said she would let us know if an option appeared. Okay . Well, we just sort of collapsed there on the tile, every which way. We tried

Speaker A

to nap because it was so late and we were totally exhausted. So. M. The lady runs over and says there are three seats available. Well, there were nine of us. But she runs over and says there are three seats. I say: "Well, let's go

Speaker A

." So. Well, the three of us head out, give some money to the driver, get on, and drive back to the Belarusian border checkpoint. Uh, well, and with the others, a second bus with the rest of the guys left a bit later. I basically

Speaker A

sat on that bus until we eventually arrived there. Well, there were other buses in front of us that were just packed with people. So. So, anyway, I probably sat in that bus of mine for four hours until I finally got there

Speaker A

and went through customs, you know, went through customs. I mean, it was actually just a distance of maybe half a kilometer, but because of all those procedures, it ended up taking a very long time. It was already morning by

Speaker A

then. Yeah. So I arrived back toward the morning. Yeah. And so, I waited for the rest of our guys. We found some border guard guys there in Belarus, explained the situation back and forth.

Speaker A

Then our guys arrived a bit later. They picked us up again, we explained the situation, coordinated, and headed to the second checkpoint. So this is already the second day, the second attempt. Naturally, nobody had slept.

Speaker A

It was already the second half of the day. They put us on buses again, and we paid the money for the ride again. And we head off to the same place. Well, they split us up into groups across

Speaker A

several buses. Yeah. We had already exchanged contacts and were staying in touch. So we board. I get on, I think this was maybe the third or fourth one by now. I board the bus. And we start moving toward the Polish checkpoint

Speaker A

again. Yeah. We get there, we stand and wait again. They announce that customs control is starting. We have to go to the checkpoint to sort out our documents. The whole procedure repeats itself all over again. By that point, I

Speaker A

already knew that the first guys had been turned back because we were texting and staying in touch. I was already feeling pretty demoralized, because I hadn’t slept in a long time and because of all this nonsense. We get out, we walk over to them, I give

Speaker A

them my passport again and say, "Here's the deal, I'm going there, this and that, I have this much money on me." Like, uh...But they didn't seem to care at all. So they say, "Wait a minute, go over there." They take me upstairs, and

Speaker A

there I see my colleagues from my group who were traveling with us and had been detained earlier. But the funny thing was that the first group had been turned back really quickly; they were given papers and let go. Yeah. But for

Speaker A

some reason, they kept the rest of us longer than usual. And they held us without, like, I mean, there was no movement, no one was calling us in, no questions, nothing. They just kept us there, said wait and that's it. Like,

Speaker A

and at that moment, my paranoia started acting up again. I was thinking, "Now those tough guys will show up in a blue and yellow paddy wagon and take us off to the land of green dreams." Like, well, we waited, in short, we waited.

Speaker A

Uh, we waited there for, I don't know, an hour, maybe two. Then they started slowly pulling us in to process us.

Speaker A

They wrote up some papers, back and forth, like a formal refusal, showing in writing that we weren't being let through again. And then they transferred us back to the Belarusian side. Yeah. Mhm. We were met by Belarusian border guards. We met a very

Speaker A

pleasant lady there. We stood there, chatted about life, about this and that . Yeah. And then they took us to our group. of escorts. They were already waiting for us there. We had a nice talk with her about the latest incident

Speaker A

. Yeah. And they gave us food, for which I'm very grateful, because I was starving like crazy, and so were the guys. We all ate well, it was great.

Speaker A

And then they took us to get some sleep . They took us to get some sleep. At that moment, it felt like a five-star hotel. For the first time in a long while, I was able to sleep really well.

Speaker A

Yeah. And then in the morning, they gathered us all up again and finally took us to Lithuania. Overall, it was all the same. We had to book a hostel, get tickets, this and that. Yeah. We get on the bus one by one again. We

Speaker A

head to the Lithuanian border. We arrive there. I walk into that building again. My heart starts pounding, my nerves are acting up. Yeah. But our turn finally comes to go in there. I walk up and hand her my passport. She

Speaker A

asks: "What, where to?" I say: "Well, over there." She says: "And what's over there?""Well, it's like this and like that." How much money? I say: "Well, here, I have this much." Like, for one person at that moment, I probably had

Speaker A

about 400 bucks on me. And I also show her my bank accounts. "And I've got a couple thousand here too, sort of." And that was it, she said: "Okay, go ahead.

Speaker A

" I had a hiking backpack, but the guys ahead of me had, like, dry bags. They had ditched the extra stuff, so they just had these small dry bags left.

Speaker A

with candles. Yeah. And something, in short, they started nitpicking them about, like, these tiny little bags of theirs, like, you're traveling to another country, and you have these tiny little bags, like, what the heck is that? Like that. Well, they gave

Speaker A

them a hard time for a bit, but in the end, they let them go too, like that.

Speaker A

Well, the moment I actually passed that checkpoint and got back on the minibus, I don't even know how to describe that state, it's finally, I'm free. It's just, it's just, well, these emotions are indescribable. My power bank was

Speaker A

running out, and my phone was low on charge, but at least I was already on Lithuanian territory. Yeah. And in the end, because of that whole mess with the Poles, it was decided not to take the bus, because they could just kick

Speaker A

us off again in the middle of the route , so we decided to buy plane tickets.

Speaker A

That was my first flight. I was just, I was amazed, I had a blast, it was top-notch. It was just, really, unforgettable emotions. And so eventually, I flew by plane from Lithuania to Germany. And then, locally , I took buses to reach my final

Speaker A

destination. Yeah. And now, well, I've already submitted my documents, and in general, I'm waiting for processing.

Speaker A

Everything is great now. So, that's how the story turned out. Well, it's great that everything worked out. Well, honestly, yeah. The difficulties at the border were, I think, no less than during the trek.

Speaker A

Yes, I'll tell you, I was emotionally drained even more than during the crossing itself. Really, I mean, if I'm walking during the crossing and getting physically exhausted by some obstacles, well, at least everything is clear.

Speaker A

Like, yes, I need to specifically go there right now, do this and that. But when you're traveling in a situation like that, you're going, you're spending time, you're spending resources, and you don't know what will happen, and you just keep twisting

Speaker A

yourself up with all this uncertainty, it wears you out even more, you know. So, this part really beat me up emotionally more than even the crossing itself. Yeah.

Speaker A

Uh-huh. Right. And how are your impressions of Europe in general? Listen, it's a different world. Like, I don't know, in contrast to Ukraine, where people are constantly on cortisol , walking around all gloomy and angry.

Speaker A

I am just, well, walking around here, looking at the people. Everyone, everyone is so friendly, greeting each other, smiling and all. It just feels like I’m dreaming, like it's a completely different world. Like, well, I don't kn I, I don't know. It's just

Speaker A

gorgeous in general. It’s simply magnificent. So, what are your future plans? Well, get settled, live, work, and enjoy the life that I have left.

Speaker A

So you'll be a German now. That’s how it looks. I certainly hope so. Uh-huh. So, do you already have plans for how to legalize your status, how...

Speaker A

I’ve already submitted the documents, everything is being processed. For protection, right? Yeah, yeah. Yes, the 24th paragraph is still working for now.

Speaker A

Uh-huh. And in the future? In terms of the future, well, the paragraph gives me a long-term opportunity to work, protection, and so on. Then, well, later on, I’ll need to get citizenship, try for it. But, well, a lot of time still has to pass,

Speaker A

so it’s hard to look that far ahead. Five years. Five years of living there at minimum.

Speaker A

And, besides, yes, yes, yes, like I said, the time spent on the paragraph doesn't count, by the way, under the law.

Speaker A

Oh, it’s like that, is it? So you will have to leave the paragraph entirely, and then live there for 5 years, after which you can apply for citizenship, but not otherwise.

Speaker A

Aha. I didn't know about that detail. Thank you. Yes. So keep that in mind.

Speaker A

Well, in any case, it’s better than where I was, just sitting at home constantly without being able to do anything at all.

Speaker A

Yes, think about what options there are to legalize your status, something more permanent. Since temporary protection is temporary for a reason. Or do you think this will all last another 5 years? No, of course not, that’s clear.

Speaker A

Yes. Well, anyway, I’m happy for you that everything worked out, you managed it, and despite the difficulties at the end, you didn't give up, you overcame them, and now you are, so to speak, reaping the fruits of your freedom.

Speaker A

So I congratulate you on that, of course. Also, I would like to express my special gratitude to you for not remaining indifferent. You shared your story with the guys who are also listening, who also want to find a way

Speaker A

to break free, to learn at least some snippet of information to use. And, naturally, I hope everything works out for them too. And, of course, your experience is also, so to speak, very valuable. How to get there, how to deal

Speaker A

with the Poles. That is quite important , by the way. Yes, yes, yes. It is, it’s a disaster . Well, yeah, so, guys, guys, the longer you sit around, the higher the price will be later for you and all of this. Every

Speaker A

single day counts at this point. Therefore, there's no point in waiting, you need to get out. Well, the world doesn't end in Europe, if anything, even if it becomes very problematic to get here.

Speaker A

There are plenty of other countries ready to take people in. The main thing is having the willingness to live, work and well yes, and everything will be fine.

Speaker A

And you shouldn't forget that with each day, the price of leaving grows—not in financial terms, but in terms of sheer difficulty, because it's difficult in every way: materially , morally, and generally in every sense . Therefore, the sooner you manage to

Speaker A

gain your freedom, the easier it will be, because practice has already shown —and I can speak from personal experience—what it was like in '23 and '24. Every year everything got more complicated, and exponentially so.

Speaker A

That’s why you shouldn't delay, so to speak, or wait until 2027 or 2028. Thinking, "Oh, they gave me a deferment for another six months or a year, so I'll just sit tight while no one is bothering me.""I have an exemption for a year, why worry

Speaker A

? Everything's fine.""They're catching others, but they're not catching me." But nevertheless, when that expires, the situation might be completely different. And the screws will be tight But now they don't even give exemptions for six months anymore.

Speaker A

Now they only give them for a month. Ah, well, all the more reason, it's monthly now, and you have to go to the recruitment office to update it in person, not remotely.

Speaker A

Uh-huh. All the more reason not to delay, because while it might seem like there's an opportunity for some to get an exemption and walk around boldly, showing everyone that piece of paper, " I have an exemption, don't touch me."

Speaker A

Well, sooner or later that can end, and when you’re really backed into a corner, leaving will be many times harder. But then again, those who have an exemption can get out more easily and more quickly, than those without

Speaker A

one. When that expires, we're immediately looking at a 2x difficulty increase. And as more time passes, it will get more difficult—more difficult regarding legalization and everything else. So we keep adding multipliers to the complexity of this operation.

Speaker A

Therefore, while you have this information from us and from other guys who successfully got out, you need to use it immediately, strive and try while it's not too late, yes, because as the saying goes, it’s too late to drink Borjomi when the kidneys

Speaker A

have failed, so Yes, don't sleep on it. Exactly. Yes. Yes, get out there, guys, don't wait, because it will only get worse. There will be absolutely no happy ending at all in this whole story if, well, if you keep on sitting around.

Speaker A

That's true. You should have started acting yesterday. The situation is approximately like this. Mhm, that’s true. Better to act yesterday than tomorrow, as they say.

Speaker A

So don't wait. Right? Yes. Okay, fine. Anyway, thank you very much again. Thank you for not being indifferent, for sharing your story, and for motivating the other guys. I would like to wish that everything works out for you: that you legalize

Speaker A

your status and quickly move from your current paragraph to more solid grounds to stay in the country, to get legalized, to strive for things, not to be in limbo, so to speak, so that all this happens for you quickly, and you

Speaker A

can live happily, without worries, and forget about all this like a terrible, terrible nightmare. Then someday, I don't know, you'll be in the woods with future friends and tell this as a horror story with a flashlight.

Speaker A

Like a real horror movie. Yeah, it turned out to be quite a horror story.

Speaker A

That’s true. Well then, let’s wrap it up on that note. Anyway, thank you for your story. Have a great day, and bye-bye everyone. Good luck with your escape.

Speaker A

Thank you. Bye.

Topics:Belarus escapedisguiseborder crossingfreedom storysurveillancemental resiliencebike traveldisguise tacticsescape journeyEuro Custom

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