Opinion: Free Bogdan Syrotiuk, Ukrainian socialist sentenced to 15 years in prison!

International Youth and Students for Social Equality On August 10, a 27-year-old socialist and anti-war activist in Ukraine, Bogdan Syrotiuk, was sentenced by a district court in the Nikolaev region to 15 years in prison. He was convicted of 'high treason under martial law' for writing articles that called upon Russian and Ukrainian workers to unite to end the war. The International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) at VUW is appealing to students and staff members to support the international campaign for Bogdan's immediate release. This is a critical part of the fight to end the war in Ukraine, which threatens to engulf Europe, and is increasingly merging with the US war against Iran as part of a global conflagration. Bogdan has already spent two years in prison in atrocious conditions and has been denied urgently needed dental treatment. Given the widespread, well-documented torture in Ukrainian prisons, a 15-year sentence could well amount to a death sentence. This is an attack on fundamental human rights that completely undermines the claims that Ukraine is fighting a war to defend 'democracy.' What was Bogdan's crime? When he was initially arrested in April 2024 he was accused of being a Russian agent, but the prosecution did not produce any evidence of espionage, sabotage, or any collaboration with the Russian state. Bogdan is a leading member of the Young Guard of Bolshevik-Leninists (YGBL), a Trotskyist organisation active in the former Soviet Union, which opposes the Putin regime and its invasion of Ukraine. The YGBL also opposes the US- and NATO-backed Zelensky regime, which is prolonging and relentlessly escalating the war against Russia. The court that sentenced Bogdan said its decision was based on six articles he wrote for the World Socialist Web Site , which was banned in Ukraine six weeks after Bogdan's arrest. These writings called on workers in Russia and Ukraine to unite to end the mutual slaughter. In a speech on May Day 2023, Bogdan said: 'This war was unleashed by US imperialism, NATO, and the Putin regime. It is an imperialist war, waged not in the interests of the proletariat of Russia, Ukraine and America but in the interests of capital in these countries.' In February 2024, shortly before his arrest, Bogdan wrote an article explaining that the 2014 NATO-backed coup d'état, which overthrew the pro-Russian regime of Viktor Yanukovych in Ukraine, had provoked the Russian annexation of Crimea and the civil war in the Donbass. The US and European powers then flooded Ukraine with weapons and prepared to use the country for a direct war against Russia, aimed at establishing unchallenged imperialist domination over the whole region of Eurasia. Bogdan insisted that 'Although Putin's invasion was a desperate response to NATO expansion, this does neither justify the actions of the Putin regime nor change its reactionary character. Just as the Zelensky regime speaks for the interests of the Ukrainian oligarchy, the Putin regime speaks for the interests of the Russian oligarchy. Both emerged out of the Stalinist bureaucracy's destruction of the Soviet Union and restoration of capitalism and are deeply hostile to the working class.' The verdict declared that Bogdan's writings were 'socially dangerous' because of they promoted 'non-recognition of Ukraine's legitimately elected political leadership and democratic processes,' 'comparisons with fascists and Nazis,' 'negative assessments of Ukraine's Armed Forces,' and 'reinterpretation of national heroes and historical figures.' As well as imprisoning Bogdan, the court demonstrated its commitment to 'democratic processes' by ordering the physical destruction of Bogdan's socialist and anti-war pamphlets and books—actions which in fact resemble those of fascist dictatorships. The fact is that Ukraine is not a democracy. On August 23, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky delivered a tirade opposing calls for an election, which he said would 'destroy the country.' Zelensky's term expired more than two years ago and elections have been indefinitely postponed. The government fears that an election could reveal the depth of opposition to the Zelensky regime and the war. A Gallup poll on June 30 found that 66 percent of Ukrainians want a negotiated end to the war as soon as possible, while only 24 percent favour fighting on until victory. Hundreds of thousands of people have deserted the military and millions have fled the country to avoid being sent to the front and killed. Even if an election is held, it won't be democratic. The regime has banned a dozen parties, including the Opposition Platform—For Life, which was the largest opposition party in parliament. Bogdan is accused of reinterpreting Ukraine's history and making false comparisons with Nazis. In fact, it is the Zelensky regime that is rewriting history to glorify figures like Stepan Bandera, leader of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), which collaborated with the Nazi war of extermination against the Soviet Union and the Holocaust against the Jewish people. Communist symbols have been outlawed in Ukraine and monuments commemorating the defeat of the Nazis by the Soviet Union have been torn down. Statues of Bandera and other monuments to the OUN have been installed across the country. One of Bogdan's articles, published on October 6 2023, outlined how the Nazis' Waffen SS Galicia Division, formed in 1943 at the instigation of OUN leader Andriy Melnyk, was being glorified on Ukrainian television. In September 2023, a veteran of the Nazi division, Yaroslav Hunka, received a standing ovation in the Canadian parliament, where he was presented as a hero by Zelensky. Zelensky recently organised the repatriation and reinterment of Melnyk's remains, as well as those of OUN founder Yehven Konovalets, as part of a campaign to re-brand these genocidal Nazi criminals as 'national heroes.' The promotion of fascist ideology, the banning of strikes, suppression of socialist publications and parties, and the imprisonment of socialists and anti-war activists. This is the reality of life in Ukraine, which is completely buried by the corporate media in New Zealand and other western countries. Instead, the NZ media is encouraging young people to fight in the war. In July the New Zealand Herald published an article glorifying a 22-year-old Auckland man who was killed while fighting for Ukraine's fascist Azov Battalion. TVNZ's Q&A recently interviewed former Defence Minister Ron Mark (NZ First), who hailed New Zealanders fighting in Ukraine and wants greater NZ involvement. The last Labour government sent NZ troops to Britain in 2022 to train Ukrainian conscripts. The National-led government has kept them there. Both major parties are promising to double New Zealand's military budget as a share of GDP and boost recruitment dramatically, in order to further integrate NZ into US-led wars throughout the world. The world's population faces enormous dangers. The wars in Ukraine and Iran, and the genocide in Gaza, demonstrate the utter ruthlessness of imperialist and capitalist powers, which seek to reconquer and plunder the world. Workers, young people, and students have the power to stop this madness. Students must join the fight to build an anti-war movement, based on the Trotskyist strategy advanced by Bogdan. In his May Day 2023 speech he said: 'The working class and the revolutionary youth can stop the impending imperialist war only by their internationalism and unity. Only internationalism, not bourgeois and petty-bourgeois nationalism, can end poverty, human oppression and injustice.' The IYSSE encourages students to attend our club meeting on September 16 at 4:10pm in SU219 to discuss this important campaign.