KYIV—Jailed Belarusian protest leader Maria Kolesnikova has been moved from intensive care to a different ward and her condition is improving, her political allies said on Thursday.
The diagnosis of the outspoken critic of Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko has still not been disclosed by the hospital where she underwent surgery on Monday, opposition politician Viktor Babariko’s Telegram account said.
Her father was told at the hospital that she had been able to eat, the Telegram account said. Her allies have said she may have a perforated ulcer according to unconfirmed information.
Reuters was unable to verify the condition of Kolesnikova.
She is one of the leaders of mass street protests against Lukashenko in 2020, who is now serving an 11-year sentence for what she said were trumped-up allegations of involvement in mass unrest.
Kolesnikova’s sister, Tatsiana Khomich, said she and her sister had last been allowed to talk on the phone in August but her father had been allowed to visit in late October for four hours. “Papa said Masha was in a very good mood, as always very strong, very cheerful.”
Kolesnikova, who famously tore up her passport to avoid being expelled in September 2020, when she was snatched from a Minsk street and driven by authorities to the Ukraine border, was forced to sew military uniforms seven hours a day, six days a week, Khomich added.
She also said that Kolesnikova suffered various punishments as a political prisoner, including having to wear a yellow label and being excluded from exercise and entertainment activities.
Asked why her sister had been placed in a punishment cell, she said Kolesnikova was accused of being in a work area during a non-work period and of having sworn at someone, which she denied.
The prison had special punishments for political prisoners, she added, including depriving them of gifts from relatives such as produce or clothing.
“Two weeks ago it became known that Maria’s lawyer would lose his license,” she added—the third of Maria’s lawyers to have suffered such a fate.
Kolesnikova ran Babariko’s presidential campaign when he sought to stand against Lukashenko in the 2020 presidential election that sparked mass protests crushed by a violent crackdown.
After Babariko was arrested in the run-up to the election—which Lukashenko duly claimed to have won by a landslide—Kolesnikova came out in support of exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya
