The World Socialist Web Site’s campaign for the release of Ukrainian socialist Bogdan Syrotiuk, jailed by the far-right Zelensky regime for opposing NATO’s war on Russia, is winning support among Indian workers, students, youth and other defenders of democratic rights.
Syrotiuk, in poor health, is imprisoned in Nikolaev, after being arrested in southern Ukraine, on April 25.
The founder and leader of the Young Guard of Bolshevik-Leninists, Bogdan is an intransigent opponent of the capitalist Putin regime and its invasion of Ukraine. He has fought for the unity of the working class in Ukraine, Russia and throughout the former Soviet Union against the US-NATO proxy war.
Syrotiuk’s arrest and the subsequent banning of the World Socialist Web Site in Ukraine is part of a broader drive to suppress left-wing movements by the Zelensky regime. These attacks are taking place in the context of growing opposition to the war within the Ukrainian working class.
The International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) last week held internationally coordinated pickets of Ukrainian embassies and consulates in Istanbul, Paris, London, Berlin, Washington D.C., Toronto, Canberra and Sydney, to protest the detention of Bogdan.
An open letter summarising the persecution of Bogdan and calling for his freedom was either delivered or attempted to be delivered to Ukrainian foreign missions during these protests. Over 2,800 people have signed the online petition “Demand the freedom of Ukrainian socialist and anti-war activist Bogdan Syrotiuk!”
Silambarasan, IT employee, RS Communication, Chennai
I express my solidarity to Bogdan Syrotiuk, a true socialist imprisoned by a fascist Ukrainian regime under the control of US/NATO imperialism, simply for revealing the objective situation about the spiraling war that Ukraine’s ruling class and its imperialist supporters do not want the world to know. The Ukrainian war is a war instigated by US/NATO imperialism and the reaction of Russian nationalism. The US-led war is part of a global capitalist redivision of the world that threatens humanity with World War III and nuclear annihilation.
Bogdan clearly opposes Zelensky’s fascist regime, US/NATO imperialism and Putin’s reactionary nationalism, and opposes another dangerous war that is massacring hundreds of thousands of people. His arrest by the Ukrainian Security Service is part of a larger global crackdown on free speech and dissent because the ruling elites don’t want the working class to know the objective truth about the world situation.
They do so because they know that once armed with knowledge and political understanding, the working class threatens to be an unstoppable global force that will end all national chauvinism and wars waged for the interest of the capitalists. Nation states and the corrupt capitalist system threaten to destroy us. I urge all socialists to build a global working-class movement to end the war in Ukraine, the US/NATO sponsored genocide in Gaza, and all the wars of nationalism and imperialism going on around the only earth that supports human life and to call for the immediate release Bogdan Syrotiuk.
Amsa, economics undergraduate at Presidency College, Chennai
As a reader of the World Socialist Web Site, I stand in solidarity with its campaign to liberate Ukrainian socialist revolutionary Bogdan Syrotiuk. The WSWS is the only intransigent voice against a third world war. I strongly condemn the countries that provide weapons to the Russia-Ukraine war.
The WSWS continue to oppose the wars instigated and backed by US-NATO countries and the war in Gaza against the Palestinians. The WSWS has been striving to build a movement to prevent the outbreak of a third world war.
Bogdan, who opposed the war by both Russia and Ukraine and has been involved in politics based on a socialist perspective, must be freed. Globally, opposition against the arrest of Bogdan by Zelensky’s Ukrainian government is on the rise amongst workers and youth.
Free Bogdan Syrotiuk!
Sirinivasan, a law student at Dr. Ambedkar Government Law College, Chennai
The Zelensky government has watered down the basic rights of every human being, such as freedom of movement and the prohibition against arbitrary arrest enshrined in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and said to be adopted by the Ukrainian government. Not providing equal rights to a fair public hearing is also a violation of democratic rights.
As long as there is a class called the capitalist class there will be no fairness available to the common people. It is the common people who are affected by the war waged by the greed of the rich class. Therefore Bogdan Syrotiuk, who took an anti-war stance, should be freed and the war in Ukraine stopped.
Shyam, assistant movie director, Chennai
Right now, imperialism is tearing the world apart. To stand up against this is to save the world. Bogdan did that and so now those who are anti-imperialistic must rise together for Bogdan.
The working class of Russia and Ukraine must unite to stop the imperialist war. I stand with Bogdan in that struggle.
Free Bogdan Syrotiuk
Free Palestine
Kailash, a Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation worker
By arresting brother Bogdan and threatening him with life imprisonment, the Ukraine government has made him a prisoner of war and done a great injustice to him. He faces the danger of torture.
The government is using his arrest as an example to violate others’ democratic rights as well. The Ukraine government has done grave injustice to a 25-year-old young man through this detention.
I, Kailash from India, demand the Ukrainian government to release him immediately. He should be given justice.
I know from my own experience that the intervention of workers is important in the fight to release Bogdan. In 2022, the Maharashtra state government in India victimised me as a (MSRTC) worker during a strike of over 90,000 workers. I, together with approximately 11,000 other workers were issued dismissal orders.
The Bombay High Court only gave us justice after about 150 days of class struggle in the streets, which led to the court cancelling the dismissal orders of the MSRTC public road transport corporation of the Maharashtra state government.
Dhanesh, a Renault-Nissan factory worker in Chennai
We strongly condemn the fact that Bogdan Syrotiuk has been imprisoned in brutal conditions on fraudulent charges of serving the interests of Russia. This false case against Comrade Bogdan must be withdrawn.
A worker who spoke out for honesty and truth has been jailed today on false accusations. This is causing great distress among the world’s workers. As Comrade Bogdan said, the war can only be stopped, and the welfare of workers protected, if workers of the world unite.
Free Bogdan Syrotiuk!