The trial started in Minsk on August 19 of 12 people over a drone attack at the Machulishchy Air Base near the Belarusian capital in late February 2023 that damaged a Russian military plane.
The Vyasna human rights center said the defendants, many of whom are being tried in absentia, were charged with high treason, terrorism, facilitating extremist activities, financing terrorist activities, organizing and preparing of activities that blatantly disrupt public order, premeditated damage of vehicles, illegal operations with weapons and explosives, participation in terrorism training, etc.
The defendants include Maksim Lapatsin, Andrey Stsyapurka, Aleh Sychou, Dzyanis Sakalou, Anastasia Pilko, and six other defendants who are not in Belarus -- Alyaksandr Azarau, Yauhenia Tachytskaya, Mikhail Dzyomin, Syarhey Laparau, Vital Yakutsik, Ala Yatsuta, and Ukrainian national Mykola Shvets.
The leader of the Belarusian antigovernment group ByPol, Alyaksandr Azarau, said in July last year that the attack at the Machulishchy Air Base that damaged Russia's A-50 early warning and control plane was a joint operation by ByPol and Ukraine's Security Service (SBU).
Russia used the Machulishchy Air Base near the Belarusian capital for aircraft involved in the full-scale invasion of Ukraine launched in February 2022.
Although the invasion was partly organized in Moscow-allied Belarus, authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka has sought to downplay his regime's role in the conflict.
Belarusian authorities said at the time they arrested more than 20 men and women suspected of involvement in the high-profile attack.
Belarusian investigators claimed the Ukrainian national, Shvets, was an SBU agent. Shvets and several other Ukrainians were released and returned to Ukraine in a prisoner swap in June, but despite that Shvets is among the Belarusians being tried in absentia.
In March this year, Ukrainian officials confirmed the SBU's involvement into the attack at the Belarusian airbase.