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As of 15 May 2026, at least 122 cultural figures, including at least 24 writers, were either imprisoned or under home confinement. The number of banned books climbed to 340.
The website of the Belarusian online library Kamunikat.org was temporarily taken offline after a large-scale cyberattack.
Manuscripts by journalist and non-fiction author Kaciaryna Andrejeva were confiscated before her release from the penal colony, including the entire archive accumulated over five years of imprisonment.
The Ministry of Information added the band Naviband‘s Threads account to the list of “extremist materials”.
The Ministry of Information added the Instagram page of the Ivan Luckievič Museum (lutskevichmuseum) to the list of “extremist materials”.
The Facebook page “Ales Pushkin” belonging to the late artist and political prisoner Aleś Puškin, who died in prison, was included in the “List of Extremist Materials”.
Four political science and human rights publications were designated as “extremist materials”.
The folk festival Sviata Sonca (Festival of the Sun) was cancelled.
I. Attack on the online library Kamunikat.org
On the night of 6–7 May 2026, the website of the Belarusian online library Kamunikat.org was targeted by a large-scale cyberattack and was temporarily taken offline. The head of the project, Jarosław Iwaniuk, stated that he believed the security services were behind the attack. He said, “In my opinion, this indicates that Kamunikat is indeed a very good project, one that is in demand among Belarusians who want to preserve their cultural heritage, read in Belarusian, and preserve the language — and that is precisely why the regime and its special services dislike it.”
The Belarusian online library Kamunikat.org was founded in Białystok, Poland, in 2001. In 2022, a publishing house of the same name was established. A previous hacking attempt took place in December 2025. The first attack on Kamunikat.org occurred in 2023, when the main domain was blocked in Belarus. On 3 March, Kamunikat.org was designated an “extremist formation” in Belarus. Following the cyberattack on the online library, the cybercrime unit in Białystok, Poland, opened a criminal investigation.
II. Confiscation of manuscripts in places of incarceration
Journalist and non-fiction author Kaciaryna Andrejeva (Bachvałava), who was released from a penal colony on 19 March 2026 and deported from Belarus, reported that her notes had been confiscated there, including all correspondence and her entire archive accumulated over five years.
III. Designation of human rights, educational, and cultural organisations as “extremist”
1. On 6 May, the KGB added three Belarusian projects operating abroad to the list of “extremist formations”: Znivien — a clothing brand known since 2020 for its use of Belarusian symbols and themes of emigration and protest; The Krama Store — an online shop selling Belarusian goods, including books by Belarusian authors; and LVS Language School — an online foreign language school. The projects’ websites, as well as their Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok pages, were declared “extremist”.
2. On 7 May, it became known that the Ministry of Information had added the Threads account of the band Naviband to the list of “extremist materials”.
3. On 11 May, it became known that the Ministry of Information had added the Instagram page of the Ivan Luckievič Museum (lutskevichmuseum) to the list of “extremist materials”.
4. On 14 May, it became known that the Ministry of Information had added the Facebook page “Mova Nanova – Televiersija” to the list of “extremist materials”.
IV. Designation of cultural figures’ social media accounts as “extremist”
On 4 May, the Hłusk District Court of the Mahiloŭ Region designated as “extremist” the Facebook page of artist and political prisoner Aleś Puškin, who died in prison on 11 July 2023 because the authorities failed to provide timely medical assistance. On 6 May, the page “Ales Pushkin” was added to the “List of Extremist Materials”.
V. Banned books
1. On 6 May, it became known that, following applications by the prosecutor’s office of Minsk’s Zavodski District, the Zavodski District Court had ruled on 25 April that the following books constituted “extremist materials”: The Contemporary History of Belarusian Parliamentarism (Minsk: Analytical Hub, 2005); Collection of Analytical Reports (Vilnius: Centre for Support of Publishing Initiatives, 2009); The Human Rights Situation in Belarus in 2008 (Minsk: Analytical Review, 2009); Local Elections in the Contemporary Political History of Belarus (Minsk: Analytical Hub, 2003).
2. On 11 May, it became known that the prosecutor’s office of Minsk’s Zavodski District had discovered that one website was offering for sale Heinz Guderian’s book Memoirs of a German General. Germany’s Tank Forces in the Second World War. 1939–1945, included in the “List of Extremist Materials”. The prosecutor’s office issued an official order demanding the immediate removal of the book from the catalogue, which was subsequently complied with.
VI. Cancellation of cultural events
On 8 May, it became known that the folk festival Sviata Sonca (Festival of the Sun), traditionally held at the Dudutki Museum Complex of Traditional Crafts and dedicated to the summer solstice, would not take place in 2026.