r/InternationalNews

On August 10, a court in the city of Pervomaisk in southern Ukraine sentenced Bogdan Syrotiuk—a 27-year-old socialist and leader of the Trotskyist Young Guard of Bolshevik-Leninists—to 15 years in prison for “high treason” for calling for the international unity of Russian and Ukrainian workers against war.

Bogdan has been convicted of a thought crime, in a ruling that blatantly violates international human rights law and the European Convention on Human Rights. The charge rested on the antiwar articles Bogdan published on the World Socialist Web Site and on his opposition to the Ukrainian government’s glorification of Nazi collaborators.

The very statements cited in the ruling make clear that he was an opponent of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and called on workers and young people in both Russia and Ukraine to oppose it. The verdict cites his “comparisons with fascists and Nazis” and his “reinterpretation of national heroes and historical figures”—explicitly citing as evidence his denunciation of the Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera, whose movement participated in the Holocaust.

The savage treatment of Bogdan and the kangaroo-court character of the proceedings explode the official narrative that has dominated the governments and media of the United States and Europe: that Ukraine is an embattled democracy, fighting to defend freedom against an unprovoked invasion. The prosecution of Bogdan exemplifies the real state of affairs in Ukraine.

The Ukrainian state has outlawed left-wing politics and suppressed all independent political and trade union activity. In March 2022, the government of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky suspended 11 opposition parties and merged the major national television channels’ news into a single state-run broadcast. That June, the courts banned the largest opposition party in parliament. Strikes are prohibited under martial law, and wartime labor legislation has suspended collective agreements and stripped basic protections from the majority of the workforce. Elections have been suspended since Zelensky’s own term expired on May 20, 2024. He rules by decree.