Expelled and persecuted Belarusian students find refuge in Lithuanian universities 51 Protests in Belarus / AP Belarusian university students have been forced to flee after attending protests and being expelled, persecuted, and imprisoned. Some have found their way to Lithuania. Yevgeniy Ignatsiyev might seem like an ordinary student who decided to pursue higher education in a foreign country. The 19-year-old from Minsk is now a student at the European Humanities University (EHU) in Vilnius. But Ignatsiyev is not a student on exchange – he is a student in exile. Ignatsiyev is one of hundreds of students who have been expelled from higher education institutions in Belarus for opposing the country’s regime. Reacting to the mass repressions, major Lithuanian universities invited persecuted students to start or continue their education for free. Some 200 Belarusians took the offer.