Warsaw bus station reunion: Belarusian family separated for five years finally meets

Column: War and Peace By Ljubow Lunjowa Published: 17 July 2026, 11:54

At the Warsaw bus station, extraordinary reunions take place. This is the story of how Olga and her daughter were finally able to greet their mother and grandmother.

The Warszawa Zachodnia bus station. Among Belarusian exiles in Warsaw, there is hardly anyone who does not know this place. This is where the buses from Belarus arrive — at platform 8.

This morning I came here to pick up someone who was supposed to arrive by bus from Minsk. The schedule is almost never kept because waiting times at the border vary greatly. Bus or car are now the only ways to travel to Belarus. Rail traffic between Poland and Belarus was discontinued in spring 2020, and there have been no flight connections since summer 2021.

I am waiting for Maria. She is my friend's sister. I have known her since childhood. Standing with me at the bus station are Maria's daughter Olga and her seven-year-old granddaughter Anja. Maria had called in between and said she had crossed the border. Only then could we breathe a sigh of relief. Until that phone call, we had lived in uncertainty for several days.

A Family Separated for Five Years

Since 2021, Maria has not seen her daughter and granddaughter, when the two were forced to leave Belarus. A typical story of tens of thousands of Belarusian families, including my own.

Five years after Olga's departure, Maria has now followed her daughter into exile — and thus her granddaughter as well.

Whoever Condemns Violence Insults the State

Maria was supposed to come to Poland in April. But an incident thwarted her plans: She got caught in one of the regular raids. Security forces discovered that she had subscribed to "extremist" channels on her phone. In Belarus, all channels except state media are classified as extremist.

They also found an older Facebook comment in which Maria had condemned violence — for the authorities, an insult to state representatives. Her apartment was subsequently searched. Five years later, Maria has now followed her daughter into exile.

A Journalist Forced to Flee

Maria's daughter Olga is a journalist. She was first arrested in September 2020, on the sidelines of one of the Sunday protest marches, just a few steps from the entrance to her apartment building. Masked security forces without any insignia ran up to her from behind and threw her to the ground. Then she was thrown into a blue prisoner transport van.

As the vehicle drove off, she told the men that her child was waiting for her at home. The answer: a blow with a rubber baton to the back. "Shut your mouth, bitch, before we smash your skull in!" shouted one of the masked security forces. The next blow hit her legs.

Half an Hour's Time

It was not until early morning that Olga was released again. Because she had a small child, she was not taken into pre-trial detention but received a fine.

Olga worked successfully as a journalist. When she was arrested for the second time, the young mother lost her job. Shortly afterwards, neighbors informed her that police officers had been looking for her. She knew what that meant: She was summoned for interrogation.

She had only half an hour to pack her things. Then she took a taxi to the bus station, bought a ticket for the next bus — to any country in the European Union. The next bus...

International bus station Zachodnia in Warsaw Photo: imagebroker/imago

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