Andrzej Poczobut moves to Białystok, vows to return to Belarus

Polish‑Belarusian journalist and opposition activist Andrzej Poczobut has applied for a municipal social‑housing apartment in Białystok. The city’s mayor, Tadeusz Truskolaski, welcomed him and said the application will be processed faster than usual because of Poczobut’s services to the city. He expects to move into the new flat in the second half of August, which he says will help him continue work for democracy in Belarus and for the local Belarusian minority.

Despite the invitation to settle in Poland, Poczobut announced that he plans to travel back to Belarus in September to attend the XI Congress of the Union of Poles in Belarus in Grodno, describing Grodno as his home. The move is seen as a personal test of President Alexander Lukashenko’s regime after Poczobut’s release from a Belarusian prison in a 2025 prisoner‑exchange. He remains a high‑profile symbol of the Polish minority’s opposition to the Lukashenko government.