Lithuanian blogger who drove tourists to Chernobyl zone imprisoned in Belarus for political reasons

Deividas Stanulevičius is 27 years old, a resident of Vilnius.

Not much information about him is found online. In his youth, the guy was passionate about football and played as a defender for the amateur team “Granitas”. Later, the young man actively engaged in car-related topics, reselling cars, and also organized minibus trips between Lithuania, Poland, and Belarus.

In recent years, he organized tourist excursions, including to the Belarusian part of the Chernobyl exclusion zone.

Stanulevičius ran a TikTok blog with almost 9,000 subscribers, as well as Facebook and Instagram pages. There he mainly covered two-day trips along the route Vilnius — Lida — Minsk — Gomel — Khoiniki, with a visit to the Chernobyl zone and return. The price was 250 euros.

He last announced such a tour on February 23, 2026. He also wrote then that the next trip was planned for March 6. Soon after, Stanulevičius was arrested. Apparently, at the Belarusian border, as he did not publish anything from that tour.

Павялічыць

Deividas Stanulevičius in the Chernobyl zone. Photo from his Facebook

The Lithuanian was placed in a pre-trial detention center. Recently, the Minsk City Court found him guilty under Part 1 of Article 361-4 of the Criminal Code of Belarus (“facilitating extremist activity”). Stanulevičius is currently serving his sentence.

The essence of the accusations is not publicly known, as is usual in trials under political articles in Belarus.

Mass political repressions in the country began after 2020. At that time, Alexander Lukashenka lost to Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya but did not cede power to her, instead forcing her to leave the country. This triggered massive popular protests involving millions of people. In response, the authorities initiated arrests.

According to calculations by the law enforcement association “Belpol” and human rights defenders, the names of at least 10,050 people who fell under politically motivated criminal cases are known. In total, various political repressions (criminal cases, administrative charges, dismissals, searches, forced emigration) affected hundreds of thousands of Belarusians.

The Belarusian authorities consider “extremism” to be the demand for free elections with transparent vote counting, as well as virtually any criticism of the authorities, pro-Russian historical narratives, expressions of solidarity with Ukraine, and anti-war speeches.