Overview
- Belarus’s president said Roman Protasevich was an intelligence employee, describing a trip to Greece where he reported to handlers, received an assignment, and flew back under cover.
- Protasevich confirmed his ties to Belarusian intelligence in comments to state media and did not explain why his role was revealed now.
- He told reporters he has had no contact with Sofia Sapega since they were detained in 2021.
- The Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius was forced to land in Minsk in May 2021 over a false bomb alert, after which Protasevich and Sapega were arrested, later convicted, and pardoned in 2023.
- Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova reacted to the admission, referring to them as “Belarusian partisans” on her Telegram channel.