Valentin was arrested in August 2021 as part of a criminal case opened under three criminal articles.
In January 2022, he was sentenced to imprisonment in a penal colony for "social media posts calling for street protests and active resistance if they were suppressed," as well as for filming a protest on August 12, 2020, on Cosmonauts Avenue in Grodno, a video of which he posted online with his own commentary.
On December 13, 2025, he was released following a visit to Minsk by US President Donald Trump's special representative, John Cole, and taken to Ukraine.
