Head of a Belarusian Red Cross regional office vacations in Crimea amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine

Dzmitry Shautsou is not the only Belarusian Red Cross staff member who enjoys visiting the occupied territories of Ukraine. Buro was provided with information that at least one BRC's regional office head went on holiday to Crimea during Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Natallia Talkachova, the head of the Hrodna BRC chapter, visited Crimea in July 2022.

Her trip was not work-related, unlike Shautsou's. She shared photos from her trip and a video of her driving across the Crimean bridge on her Facebook page.

According to the data provided by CyberPartisans, we can confirm that the trip was not a humanitarian mission. Natallia went to Crimea for a holiday and took leave on those dates.

We attempted to contact Talkachova for a comment, but she did not respond to our calls.

Our investigation The Dark Sides of the Belarusia Red Cross Society revealed the close ties between the head of Hrodna BRC and Dzmitry Shautsou.

It is worth noting that the Belarusian Red Cross's membership in the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent was suspended due to Dzmitry Shautsou's trip to the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine. As a result, the BRC lost a significant portion of its international funding.