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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">"One less traitor": Zelensky oversees campaign of assassination, kidnapping and torture of political opposition<br></h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Max Blumenthal and Esha Krishnaswamy·April 17, 2022</div>
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<br><h3>While claiming to defend democracy,
Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky has outlawed his opposition, ordered his
rivals’ arrest, and presided over the disappearance and assassination of
dissidents across the country.</h3>
<p>Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has framed his country’s war
against Russia as a battle for democracy itself. In a carefully
choreographed address to US Congress on March 16, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/16/us/politics/transcript-zelensky-speech.html">Zelensky stated</a>,
“Right now, the destiny of our country is being decided. The destiny of
our people, whether Ukrainians will be free, whether they will be able
to preserve their democracy.”</p>
<p>US corporate media has responded by showering Zelensky with fawning
press, driving a campaign for his nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize
and inspiring a <a href="https://www.grammy.com/news/ukrainian-president-volodymyr-zelensky-speech-2022-grammys">flamboyant musical tribute</a> to himself and the Ukrainian military during the 2022 Grammy awards ceremony on April 3.</p>
<p>Western media has looked the other way, however, as Zelensky and top
officials in his administration have sanctioned a campaign of
kidnapping, torture, and assassination of local Ukrainian lawmakers
accused of collaborating with Russia. Several mayors and other Ukrainian
officials have been killed since the outbreak of war, many reportedly
by Ukrainian state agents after engaging in de-escalation talks with
Russia.</p>
<p><span>“There is one less traitor in Ukraine,” Internal Affairs
Ministry advisor Anton Geraschenko stated in endorsement of the murder
of a Ukrainian mayor accused of collaborating with Russia.</span></p>
<p>Zelensky has further exploited the atmosphere of war to outlaw an
array of opposition parties and order the arrest of his leading rivals.
His authoritarian decrees have triggered the disappearance, torture and
even murder of an array of human rights activists, communist and leftist
organizers, journalists and government officials accused of
“pro-Russian” sympathies.</p>
<p>The Ukrainian SBU security services has served as the enforcement arm
of the officially authorized campaign of repression. With training from
the CIA and close coordination with Ukraine’s state-backed neo-Nazi
paramilitaries, the SBU has spent the past weeks filling its vast
archipelago of torture dungeons with political dissidents.</p>
<p>On the battlefield, meanwhile, the Ukrainian military has engaged in a
series of atrocities against captured Russian troops and proudly
exhibited its sadistic acts on social media. Here too, the perpetrators
of human rights abuses appear to have received approval from the upper
echelons of Ukrainian leadership.</p>
<p>While Zelensky spouts bromides about the defense of democracy before
worshipful Western audiences, he is using the war as a theater for
enacting a blood-drenched purge of political rivals, dissidents and
critics.</p>
<p>“The war is being used to kidnap, imprison and even kill opposition
members who express themselves critical of the government,” a left-wing
activist beaten and persecuted by Ukraine’s security services <a href="https://www.jungewelt.de/artikel/423834.krieg-in-der-ukraine-stundenlange-pr%C3%BCgel-und-dem%C3%BCtigung.html">commented</a> this April. “We must all fear for our freedom and our lives.”</p>
<h3>Torture and enforced disappearances “common practices” of Ukraine’s SBU</h3>
<p>When a US-backed government seized power in Kiev following the
Euromaidan regime change operation of 2013-14, Ukraine’s government
embarked on a nationwide purge of political elements deemed pro-Russian
or insufficiently nationalistic. The passage of <a href="https://khpg.org/en/1430783454">“decommunization”</a>
laws by the Ukrainian parliament further eased the persecution of
leftist elements and the prosecution of activists for political speech.</p>
<p>The post-Maidan regime has focused its wrath on Ukrainians who have
advocated a peace settlement with pro-Russian separatists in the
country’s east, those who have documented human rights abuses by the
Ukrainian military, and members of communist organizations. Dissident
elements have faced the constant threat of ultra-nationalist violence,
imprisonment, and even murder.</p>
<p>The Ukrainian security service known as the SBU has served as the
main enforcer of the post-Maidan government’s campaign of domestic
political repression. Pro-Western monitors including the United Nations
Office of the High Commission (UN OHCR) and <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2016/07/21/you-dont-exist/arbitrary-detentions-enforced-disappearances-and-torture-eastern#">Human Rights Watch</a> have accused the SBU of systematically torturing political opponents and Ukrainian dissidents with near-total impunity.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Countries/UA/UkraineArbDetTorture_EN.pdf">UN OHCR found</a>
in 2016 that “arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, torture and
ill-treatment of such conflict-related detainees were common practice
of SBU… A former Kharkiv SBU officer explained, ‘For the SBU, the law
virtually does not exist as everything that is illegal can be either
classified or explained by referring to state necessity.”</p>
<p>Yevhen Karas, the founder of the <a href="https://thegrayzone.com/2022/03/04/nazis-ukrainian-war-russia/">infamous neo-Nazi C14 unit</a>,
has detailed the close relationship his gang and other extreme right
factions have enjoyed with the SBU. The SBU “informs not only us, but
also Azov, the Right Sector, and so on,” Karas <a href="https://news.liga.net/politics/interview/s14_kto_oni_i_pochemu_im_pozvoleno_bit_lyudey">boasted</a> in a 2017 interview.</p>
<h3>Kiev officially endorses assassinating Ukrainian mayors for negotiating with Russia</h3>
<p><span>Since Russia launched its military operation inside Ukraine,
the SBU has hunted down local officials that decided to accept
humanitarian supplies from Russia or negotiated with Russian forces to
arrange corridors for civilian evacuations.</span></p>
<p><span>On March 1, for example, Volodymyr Strok, the mayor of the
eastern city of Kreminna in the Ukrainian-controlled side of Lugansk,
was kidnapped by men in military uniform, according to his wife, and <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10571663/Pro-Russian-mayor-city-eastern-Ukraine-shot-dead-kidnapped-home.html">shot in the heart</a>.</span></p>
<p><span>On March 3, pictures of Strok’s visibly tortured body appeared. A day before his murder, Struk had <a href="https://rostov-tsargrad-tv.translate.goog/news/v-luganskoj-oblasti-podkontrolnoj-ukraine-ubit-mjer-kremennoj-vladimir-struk_505061?_x_tr_sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc">reportedly</a> urged his Ukrainian colleagues to negotiate with pro-Russian officials.</span></p>
<p><span>Anton Gerashchenko, an advisor to the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs, celebrated the mayor’s murder, <a href="https://archive.ph/wip/HDyUm">declaring on his Telegram page</a>
(see below): “There is one less traitor in Ukraine. The mayor of
Kreminna in Luhansk region, former deputy of Luhansk parliament was
found killed.” </span></p>
<p>According to Geraschenko, Strok had been judged by the “court of the people’s tribunal.”</p>
<img src="https://i0.wp.com/thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/CleanShot-2022-04-05-at-10.46.36.png?resize=487%2C1024&ssl=1" alt="" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="215" height="452">Telegram
post by Anton Gerashchenko, advisor to the Ukrainian Ministry of
Internal Affairs, celebrating the assassination of “traitor” and
Kreminna Mayor Volodymyr Struk
<p><span>The Ukrainian official therefore delivered a chilling message
to anyone choosing to seek cooperation with Russia: do so and lose your
life. </span></p>
<p><span>On March 7, the mayor of Gostomel, Yuri Prylipko, was found murdered. Prylipko had <a href="https://sozh-info.translate.goog/mehr-gostomelya-kievskojj-oblasti-yurijj-prilipko-byl-ubit-sbu/?_x_tr_sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc">reportedly entered into negotiations</a>
with the Russian military to organize a humanitarian corridor for the
evacuation of his city’s residents – a red line for Ukrainian
ultra-nationalists who had long been in conflict with the mayor’s
office.</span></p>
<p><span>Next, on March 24, Gennady Matsegora, the mayor of Kupyansk in
northeastern Ukraine, released a video (below) appealing to President
Volodymyr Zelensky and his administration for the release of his
daughter, who had been held hostage by agents of the Ukrainian SBU
intelligence agency. </span></p>
<p>Then there was the murder of Denis Kireev, a top member of the
Ukrainian negotiating team, who was killed in broad daylight in Kiev
after the first round of talks with Russia. Kireev was subsequently <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/ukraine-reports-claim-negotiator-shot-for-treason-officials-say-he-died-in-intel-op/">accused</a> in local Ukrainian media of “treason.”</p>
<p>President Volodymyr Zelensky’s statement that “there would be
consequences for collaborators” indicates that these atrocities have
been sanctioned by the highest levels of government.</p>
<p><span>As of today, eleven mayors from various towns in Ukraine are
missing. Western media outlets have been following the Kiev line without
exception, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/europe/live-news/ukraine-russia-putin-news-04-3-22/h_a5b7dff1bdb348e6aa10522aaa863ee5">claiming</a>
that all mayors been arrested by the Russian military. The Russian
Ministry of Defense has denied the charge, however, and little evidence
exists to corroborate Kiev’s line about the missing mayors. </span></p>
<h3>Zelensky outlaws political opposition, authorizes arrest of rivals and war propaganda blitz</h3>
<p>When war erupted with Russia this February, Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelensky issued a series of decrees formalizing Kiev’s
campaign against political opposition and dissident speech.</p>
<p>In a March 19 executive order, Zelensky invoked martial law to <a href="https://www.president.gov.ua/documents/1532022-41765">ban 11 opposition parties</a>.
The outlawed parties consisted of the entire left-wing, socialist or
anti-NATO spectrum in Ukraine. They included the For Life Party, the
Left Opposition, the Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine, the
Socialist Party of Ukraine, Union of Left Forces, Socialists, the Party
of Shariy, Ours, State, Opposition Bloc and the Volodymyr Saldo Bloc.</p>
<p>Openly fascist and pro-Nazi parties like the Azov National Corps were left untouched by the presidential decree, however.</p>
<p>“The activities of those politicians aimed at division or collusion
will not succeed, but will receive a harsh response,” President Zelensky
<a href="https://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2022/03/20/7332907/" target="_blank" rel="noopener external">stated.</a></p>
<p>As he wiped out his opposition, Zelensky <a href="https://www.president.gov.ua/documents/1522022-41761">ordered</a> an unprecedented domestic propaganda initiative to nationalize all television news broadcasting and <a href="https://theweek.com/russo-ukrainian-war/1011528/zelensky-nationalizes-tv-news-and-restricts-opposition-parties">combine</a> all channels into a single 24 hour channel called “United News” to “tell the truth about war.”</p>
<p>Next, on April 12, Zelensky announced the arrest of his principal
political rival, Viktor Medvedchuk, by Ukraine’s SBU security services.</p>
<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Medvedchuk’s face is clearly bruised, apparently a
result of beatings from Zelensky’s SBU goons. Don’t expect any
questions about this image to appear in the pages of the NYT or in CNN’s
24 hour media circus. Can’t allow anything to undermine the pro-war
narrative. <a href="https://t.co/A0qhhmeaj8">pic.twitter.com/A0qhhmeaj8</a></p>
<p>— Dan Cohen (@dancohen3000) <a href="https://twitter.com/dancohen3000/status/1513975057739042819?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 12, 2022</a></p></blockquote>
<p>The founder of the second largest party in Ukraine, the now-illegal
Patriots for Life, Medvedchuk is the de facto representative of the
country’s ethnic Russian population. Though Patriots for Life is
regarded as “pro-Russia,” in part because of his close relations with
Vladimir Putin, the new chairman of the party has <a href="https://lb.ua/news/2022/03/08/508614_boyko_stav_golovoyu_politradi_opzzh.html">condemned</a> Russia’s “aggression” against Ukraine.</p>
<p>Members of the state-sponsored neo-Nazi Azov Battalion’s National Corps <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7RflyZdULY">attacked Medvedchuk’s home</a> in March 2019, accusing him of treason and demanding his arrest.</p>
<p>In August 2020, Azov’s National Corps <a href="https://www.kyivpost.com/ukraine-politics/unknown-attackers-shoot-rubber-bullets-at-bus-near-kharkiv-injure-4.html">opened fire</a> on a bus carrying representatives of Medvedchuk’s party, wounding several with rubber-coated steel bullets.</p>
<p>Zelensky’s administration escalated the assault on his top opponent in February 2021 when he <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-medvedchuk-tv-channels-zelenskiy-defends-ban/31085877.html">shuttered</a> several media outlets controlled by Medvedchuk. The US State Department openly endorsed the president’s move, <a href="https://twitter.com/usembassykyiv/status/1356962469617545216?s=21&t=U76jcSoh9rhh9T0r8XCHJA">declaring</a> that the United States “supports Ukrainian efforts to counter Russia’s malign influence…”</p>
<p>Three months later, Kiev <a href="https://apnews.com/article/europe-ukraine-business-government-and-politics-c3cb6ca3a2a58096fcd9810436539de9">jailed Medvedchuk and charged him with treason</a>.
Zelensky justified locking away his leading rival on the grounds that
he needed to “fight against the danger of Russian aggression in the
information arena.”</p>
<p>Medvedchuk escaped house arrest at the onset of the war between
Russia and Ukraine, but is a captive once again, and may be used as
collateral for a post-war prisoner swap with Russia.</p>
<h3>Under Zelensky’s watch, “the war is being used to kidnap, imprison and even kill opposition members”</h3>
<p>Since Russian troops entered Ukraine on February 24, Ukraine’s SBU
security service had been on a rampage against any and all iterations of
internal political opposition. Leftist Ukrainian activists have faced
particularly harsh treatment, including kidnapping and torture.</p>
<p>This March 3 in the city of Dnipro, SBU officers accompanied by Azov
ultra-nationalists raided the home of activists with the Livizja (Left)
organization, which has organized against social spending cuts and
right-wing media propaganda. While one activist said the Azov member
“cut my hair off with a knife,” the state security agents proceeded to
torture her husband, Alexander Matjuschenko, pressing a gun barrel to
his head and forcing him to repeatedly belt out the nationalist salute,
“Slava Ukraini!”</p>
<p>“Then they put bags over our heads, tied our hands with tape and took
us to the SBU building in a car. There they continued to interrogate us
and threatened to cut off our ears,” Matjuschenko’s wife <a href="https://www.jungewelt.de/artikel/423834.krieg-in-der-ukraine-stundenlange-pr%C3%BCgel-und-dem%C3%BCtigung.html">told the leftist German publication Junge Welt</a>.</p>
<p>The Azov members and SBU agents recorded the torture session and published images of Matjuschenko’s bloodied face online.</p>
<img src="https://i0.wp.com/thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/3307158_800.jpg?resize=764%2C800&ssl=1" alt="" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="432" height="452">The
torture of left-wing activist Alexander Matjuschenko on March 3 in
Dnipro, recorded by Azov members and posted on Telegram by the city of
Dnipro
<p>Matjuschenko was jailed on the grounds that he was “conducting an
aggressive war or military operation,” and now faces 10 to 15 years in
prison. Despite enduring several broken ribs from the beating by
state-backed ultra-nationalists, he has been denied bail. Meanwhile,
dozens of other <a href="https://maysuryan-livejournal-com.translate.goog/1655547.html?_x_tr_sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc">leftists have been jailed</a> on similar charges in Dnipro.</p>
<p>Among those targeted by the SBU were Mikhail and Aleksander
Kononovich, members of the outlawed Leninist Communist Youth Union of
Ukraine. Both were <a href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/03/07/ukrainian-security-services-arrest-young-communist-leaders/">arrested and jailed</a> on March 6 and accused of “spreading pro-Russian and pro-Belarusian views.”</p>
<p>In the following days, the SBU arrested broadcast journalist Yan
Taksyur and charged him with treason; human rights activist Elena
Berezhnaya; Elena Viacheslavova, a human rights advocate whose father,
Mikhail, was burned to death during the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vy-YrTdt7RE">May 2, 2014 ultra-nationalist mob attack</a>
on anti-Maidan protesters outside the Odessa House of Trade Unions;
independent journalist Yuri Tkachev, who was charged with treason, and
an untold number of others; disabled rights activist Oleg Novikov, who
was <a href="https://tass.com/russia/810083?utm_source=google.com&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=google.com&utm_referrer=google.com">jailed for three years</a> this April on the grounds that he supported “separatism.”</p>
<p><a href="https://thesaker.is/a-disturbing-trend-in-the-ukraine/">The list</a>
of those imprisoned by Ukraine’s security services since the outbreak
of war grows by the day, and is too extensive to reproduce here.</p>
<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Oleg Novikov—opposition activist from my city,
Kharkov, persecuted in the past by the Zelensky regime—was kidnapped
5/04/22 at 6am by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and taken to an
unknown place. Oleg is disabled and has 3 young children. (Pic is from a
previous arrest) <a href="https://t.co/KSeHYC7DWJ">pic.twitter.com/KSeHYC7DWJ</a></p>
<p>— Gonzalo Lira (@realGonzaloLira) <a href="https://twitter.com/realGonzaloLira/status/1512783497605361665?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 9, 2022</a></p></blockquote>
<p>Perhaps the most ghastly incident of repression took place when
neo-Nazis backed by the Ukrainian government kidnapped Maxim Ryndovskiy,
a professional MMA fighter, and <a href="https://twitter.com/politblogme/status/1500195518697328646">brutally tortured him</a>
for the crime of training with Russian fighters at a gym in Chechnya.
Ryndovskiy also happened to be Jewish, with a Star of David tattooed on
his leg, and had spoken out on social media against the war in eastern
Ukraine.</p>
<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">In Kyiv, local [I don’t know to fucking call
them] extremists caught and brutally torture a famous Ukrainian athlete,
MMA fighter, Maxim Ryndovsky. All his fault is that he trained with the
Chechen club "Akhmat". <a href="https://t.co/og1Psly7SE">pic.twitter.com/og1Psly7SE</a></p>
<p>— Maria Dubovikova (@politblogme) <a href="https://twitter.com/politblogme/status/1500195518697328646?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 5, 2022</a></p></blockquote>
<p>Ukraine’s SBU has even hunted opposition figures outside the country’s borders. As journalist Dan Cohen <a href="https://www.mintpressnews.com/volodymyr-zelensky-secret-police-hunted-down-opposition-anatoly-shariy/280200/">reported</a>,
Anatoly Shariy of the recently banned Party of Shariy said he was the
target of a recent SBU assassination attempt. Shariy has been an
outspoken opponent of the US-backed Maidan regime, and has been forced
to flee into exile after enduring years of harassment from nationalists.</p>
<p>This March, the libertarian politician and online pundit received an
email from a friend, “Igor,” seeking to arrange a meeting. He
subsequently learned that Igor was held by the SBU at the time and being
used to bait Shariy into disclosing his location.</p>
<p>For his part, Shariy has been placed on the notorious Myrotvorets
public blacklist of “enemies of the state” founded by Anton Geraschenko –
the Ministry of Internal Affairs advisor who endorsed the assassination
of Ukrainian lawmakers accused of Russian sympathies. Several
journalists and Ukrainian dissidents, including the prominent columnist <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ukraine-crisis/pro-russian-journalist-oles-buzina-shot-dead-kiev-masked-gunmen-n342661">Oles Buzina</a>, were <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2019/8/27/peacemaker-the-ukrainian-website-shaming-pro-russia-voices">murdered by state-backed death squads</a> after their names appeared on the list.</p>
<p>Common Ukrainian citizens have also been subjected to torture since
the start of the war this February. Seemingly countless videos have
appeared on social media showing civilians tied to lamp posts, often
with their genitals exposed or their faces painted green. Carried out by
Territorial Defense volunteers tasked with enforcing law and order
during wartime, these acts of humiliation and torture have targeted
everyone from accused Russian sympathizers to Roma people to <a href="https://observers.france24.com/en/europe/20220404-ukraine-poles-public-humiliation-punishment-looting">alleged thieves</a>.</p>
<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Roma people (“gypsies”) left Kiev as refugees and
went to border town, Lviv, where they are facing discrimination by
Ukrainians. Like here, tied to poles. A popular Ukrainian Telegram
channel celebrates this action and mocks the victims.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Kyiv?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Kyiv</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ukraine?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Ukraine</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Russia?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Russia</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Nazi?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Nazi</a> <a href="https://t.co/3cWZ9a78uA">pic.twitter.com/3cWZ9a78uA</a></p>
<p>— Global Politics (@Geopol2030) <a href="https://twitter.com/Geopol2030/status/1506003332015398918?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 21, 2022</a></p></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">This is the human rights that Zelensky brought to Ukrainian civilians<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Mariupol?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Mariupol</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/StandWithUkraine?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#StandWithUkraine</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RussiaUkraineWar?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#RussiaUkraineWar</a> <a href="https://t.co/EWFC048M2q">pic.twitter.com/EWFC048M2q</a></p>
<p>— UN voice of Justice (@TheUN_voice) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheUN_voice/status/1510671456698396674?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 3, 2022</a></p></blockquote>
<h3>Ukraine’s SBU studies torture and assassination from the CIA</h3>
<p><span>Vassily Prozorov, a former SBU officer who defected to Russia
following the Euromaidan coup, detailed the post-Maidan security
services’ systemic reliance on torture to crush political opposition and
intimidate citizens accused of Russian sympathies. </span></p>
<p>According to Prozorov, the ex-SBU officer, the Ukrainian security
services have been directly advised by the CIA since 2014. “CIA
employees have been present in Kiev since 2014. They are residing in
clandestine apartments and suburban houses,” he said. “However, they
frequently come to the SBU’s central office for holding, for example,
specific meetings or plotting secret operations.”</p>
<p>Below, Russia’s RIA Novosti profiled Prozorov and covered his disclosures in a 2019 special.</p>
<p>Journalist Dan Cohen <a href="https://www.mintpressnews.com/volodymyr-zelensky-secret-police-hunted-down-opposition-anatoly-shariy/280200/">interviewed</a>
a Ukrainian businessman named Igor who was arrested by the SBU for his
financial ties with Russian companies and detained this March in the
security service’s notorious headquarters in downtown Kiev. Igor said he
overheard Russian POWs being beaten with pipes by Territorial Defense
volunteers being coached by SBU officers. Pummeled to the sound of the
Ukrainian national anthem, the Russian prisoners were brutalized until
they confessed their hatred for Putin.</p>
<p>Then came Igor’s turn. “They used a lighter to heat up a needle, then
put it under my fingernails,” he told Cohen. “The worst was when they
put a plastic bag over my head and suffocated me and when they held the
muzzle of a Kalashnikov rifle to my head and forced me to answer their
questions.”</p>
<p>Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, the first head of the SBU after the
Euromaidan regime change operation of 2013-14, nurtured close ties to
Washington when he served as general consul to the Ukrainian embassy to
the US during the George W. Bush administration. During that time,
Nalyvaichenko was <a href="https://en.topwar.ru/43842-glava-sbu-nalivaychenko-okazalsya-agentom-cru.html">recruited by the CIA</a>,
according to his predecessor at the SBU, Alexander Yakimenko, who
served under the Russian-oriented government of deposed President Viktor
Yanukovych.</p>
<p>In 2021, Zelensky appointed one of Ukraine’s most notorious
intelligence figures, Oleksander Poklad, to lead SBU’s
counterintelligence division. Poklad is nicknamed “The Strangler,” a
reference to his <a href="https://strana.news/news/364724-aleksandr-poklad-hlava-dkr-sbu-chto-o-nem-izvestno.html">reputation</a> for using torture and assorted dirty tricks to set-up his bosses’ political rivals on treason charges.</p>
<p>This April, a vivid illustration of the SBU’s brutality emerged in
the form of video (below) showing its agents pummeling a group of men
accused of Russian sympathies in the city of Dnipro.</p>
<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr" lang="cs">Ukrainian SBU is arresting civilians in Dnipropetrovsk.</p>
<p> <a href="https://t.co/bbHFeADnqg">pic.twitter.com/bbHFeADnqg</a></p>
<p>— Vera Van Horne (@VeraVanHorne) <a href="https://twitter.com/VeraVanHorne/status/1511301270820343809?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 5, 2022</a></p></blockquote>
<h3><strong>“We will never take Russian soldiers prisoner”: Ukraine’s military flaunts its war crimes</strong></h3>
<p>While the Western media has focused squarely on alleged Russian human
rights abuses since the outbreak of war, Ukrainian soldiers and
pro-Ukrainian social media accounts have proudly exhibited sadistic war
crimes, from field executions to the torture of captive soldiers.</p>
<p><span>This March, a pro-Ukrainian Telegram channel called White Lives
Matter released a video of a Ukrainian soldier calling the fiancee of a
Russian prisoner of war, seen below, and taunting her with promises to
castrate the captive.</span></p>
<p>Ukrainian soldiers’ use of the cellphones of dead Russian soldiers to
mock and hector their relatives appears to be a common practice. In
fact, the Ukrainian government has begun <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/04/15/ukraine-facial-recognition-warfare/">using notoriously invasive facial recognition technology</a> from <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/18/technology/clearview-privacy-facial-recognition.html">Clearview AI,</a> a US tech company, to identify Russian casualties and taunt their relatives on social media.</p>
<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr" lang="en"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ukraine?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ukraine</a>
soldiers calling family of deceased to mock and swear at them. Knowing
modern phones – the soldier in question must’ve been alive before they
unlocked his device. That’s another POW <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/warCrime?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#warCrime</a> to their repertoire. <a href="https://t.co/D55T6Hu0se">pic.twitter.com/D55T6Hu0se</a></p>
<p>— Lukasz Raczylo 🅨 (@raczylo) <a href="https://twitter.com/raczylo/status/1508046216420020225?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 27, 2022</a></p></blockquote>
<p><span>This April, a pro-Ukrainian Telegram channel called
fckrussia2022 posted a video depicting a Russian soldier with one of his
eyes bandaged, suggesting it had been gouged during torture, and mocked
him as a “one-eyed” pig. </span></p>
<p><span>Perhaps the most gruesome image to have appeared on social
media in recent weeks is the photo of a tortured Russian soldier who had
one of his eyes gouged before he was killed. The accompanying post was
captioned, “looking for Nazis.”</span></p>
<img src="https://i0.wp.com/thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/pjimage-22.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&ssl=1" alt="" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="452" height="254">Photos distributed by pro-Ukraine Telegram channels showing captured, tortured and executed Russian soldiers
<p>Video has also emerged this April showing Ukrainian soldiers <a href="https://twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1508216311515684866">shooting defenseless Russian POWs in the legs</a>
outside the city of Kharkov. A separate video published by Ukrainian
and US-backed Georgian Legion soldiers showed the fighters <a href="https://thegrayzone.com/2022/04/08/lawmakers-georgian-warlord-war-crimes-ukraine/">carrying out field executions</a> of wounded Russian captives near a village outside Kiev.</p>
<img src="https://i0.wp.com/thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/war-crime.png?resize=640%2C982&ssl=1" alt="" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="295" height="452">Ukrainian and Georgian Legion fighters celebrate after executing captive Russian soldiers on video
<p><span>It is likely that these soldiers had been emboldened by their
superiors’ blessings. Mamula Mamulashvili, the commander of the Georgian
Legion, which participated in the field executions of wounded Russian
POW’s, <a href="https://thegrayzone.com/2022/04/08/lawmakers-georgian-warlord-war-crimes-ukraine/">boasted this April</a>
that his unit freely engages in war crimes: “Yes, we tie their hands
and feet sometimes. I speak for the Georgian Legion, we will never take
Russian soldiers prisoner. Not a single one of them will be taken
prisoner.” </span></p>
<p><span>Similarly, Gennadiy Druzenko, the head of the Ukrainian military medical service, <a href="https://twitter.com/dancohen3000/status/1505670818327674882">stated in an interview with Ukraine 24</a> that he “issued an order to castrate all Russian men because they were subhuman and worse than cockroaches.” </span></p>
<h3>Ukrainian officials present woman tortured and killed by Azov as victim of Russia</h3>
<p><span>While Western media homes in on Russian human rights violations
at home and inside Ukraine, the Ukrainian government has authorized a
propaganda campaign </span><a href="https://www.mintpressnews.com/ukraine-propaganda-war-international-pr-firms-dc-lobbyists-cia-cutouts/280012/"><span>known as “Total War”</span></a> that includes the planting of bogus images and false stories to further implicate Russia<span>. </span></p>
<p><span>In one especially cynical example of the strategy, Ukraine 24 – a TV channel where guests have </span><a href="https://twitter.com/dancohen3000/status/1503829062556520448"><span>called for the genocidal extermination</span></a><span>
of Russian children – published a photo this April depicting a female
corpse branded with a bloody swastika on her stomach. Ukraine 24 claimed
that it found this woman in Gostumel, one of the regions in the Kiev
Oblast that the Russians vacated on March 29. </span></p>
<p><span>Lesia Vasylenko, a Ukrainian member of parliament, and Oleksiy
Arestovych, the top advisor to President Zelensky, published the photo
of the defiled female corpse on social media. While Vasylenko left the
photo online, Arestovych deleted it eight hours after posting when
confronted with the fact that he had published a fake. </span></p>
<p><span>In fact, the image was pulled from footage originally recorded
by Patrick Lancaster, a Donetsk-based US journalist who had filmed the
corpse of a woman tortured and murdered by members of the Ukrainian Azov
Battalion in a Mariupol school basement they had converted into a
base. </span></p>
<p><span>At </span><a href="https://youtu.be/6LQSYmda0Sc"><span>2:31 in Lancaster’s video, the woman’s corpse can be seen clearly.</span></a></p>
<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Ukrainian political operative <a href="https://twitter.com/lesiavasylenko?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@lesiavasylenko</a> is spreading an especially cynical fake: </p>
<p>The original image was captured by <a href="https://twitter.com/PLnewstoday?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@PLnewstoday</a>
and showed the corpse of a woman tortured and murdered in a Mariupol
school basement by Ukrainian Nazis – the allies of Vasylenko. <a href="https://t.co/gRnURAAaQ9">pic.twitter.com/gRnURAAaQ9</a></p>
<p>— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) <a href="https://twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1511053915088990215?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 4, 2022</a></p></blockquote>
<p>As weapons pour into Ukraine from NATO states and the war
intensifies, the atrocities are almost certain to pile up – and with the
blessing of leadership in Kiev. As <a href="https://nv-ua.translate.goog/ukr/ukraine/politics/zelenskiy-u-buchi-zlochini-rf-budut-viznani-genocidom-novini-ukrajini-50231023.html?_x_tr_sl=uk&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc">Zelensky proclaimed during a visit to the city of Bucha</a> this April, “if we do not find a civilized way out, you know our people – they will find an uncivilized way out.”</p>
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