Volha has two university degrees - one in civil engineering and one in economy. In 1994, after her studies, she joined the joint venture between Naftan and an Austrian company. Ten years later, the 33-year-old Volha Britsikava was directly employed by Naftan in Navapolatsk, heading the sales department.

When the protests began in 2020, she had been working at Naftan for 16 years. Volha decided to become an observer at the 2020 presidential elections, but her accreditation was quickly withdrawn. When Naftan workers protested against electoral fraud, Volha joined them and spoke at meetings with the authorities, where the company's workers demanded that the violence by the security forces be investigated and that new presidential elections be organised. A few days later, convinced that their demands were not being met, the workers at Naftan began to write massive applications to leave the pro-government unions and join an independent one. At the same time, Volha Brytsikava joined the Belarusian Independent Trade Union.

After her dismissal from Naftan in December 2020, in January 2021 Brytsikava was elected president of the Independent Trade Union. She continued to work on workers' rights and in the courts. Meanwhile, the pressure on the union and on her personally increased. Many colleagues offered her to leave the country, but Volha refused.

In September 2021, KGB officers searched Brytsikava's house. In 2022, she spent 75 consecutive days in detention. She was arrested on the day of the referendum on constitutional amendments and charged for an anti-war video, for the slogan ""No to War"" pinned to her jacket, for the words ""No to War"" in the windows of her flat, for an anti-war post on Instagram, and for allegedly holding an unauthorised picket.

She was detained again in November and went on hunger strike in prison. In total, Volha Brytsikava spent 105 days behind bars in 2022.

In August 2023, she was detained under a criminal article and in 2024 she was sentenced to three years in a penal colony. In 2024, a further 2 years' imprisonment was added to Volha's sentence as a result of the closed trial.