Belarus protest leader Kolesnikova tore up passport to foil deportation, ally says

KYIV (Reuters) - Belarusian protest leader Maria Kolesnikova tore up her passport at the border with Ukraine and threw the pieces away to foil an attempt by Belarusian authorities to make her cross into Ukraine, her associate Anton Radnenkov said on Tuesday.

Radnenkov told reporters in Kyiv that he, another associate named Ivan Kravtsov and Kolesnikova had been taken to the border in the early hours of Tuesday by men in plain clothes, but that Kolesnikova did not cross.

Kravtsov said they did not know Kolesnikova's current whereabouts, but that he thought she could be in the custody of the Belarusian KGB security service.

(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; writing by Tom Balmforth; Editing by Kevin Liffey)