Kyiv’s unobserved war against dissident public intellectuals

In this noteworthy article, written exclusively for the NewColdWar website, Slava Myrolub describes another war. A quiet but nonetheless horrific war, it is one in which critics of Ukraine’s regime are being kidnapped by the country’s security services and, while their whereabouts remain unknown, they are being forced to make statements on social media contradicting their widely known, respected and firmly held beliefs.

By Slava Myrolub
Mar 17, 2022

As Russian troops continue their slow advance in the densely populated cities of Kharkiv and Mariupol, in which units of the Ukrainian armed forces, in particular those of the nationalist battalions, have dug deep into city buildings and residential areas, another war has been taking place, quiet and unobserved. This is a war being fought between the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and critics of the Kyiv regime, comprising social activists, journalists, writers, political commentators and historians with pro-Russian views. Vasily Volga, Dmitri Dzhangirov, Ian Taksiur, Yuri Dudkin, Aleksandr Karevin, Dmitri Skvortsov and many others have been taken from their homes by SBU agents. Their current locations remain unknown. Their accounts on social media have been hacked and messages contradicting everything they had been saying prior to their kidnapping, are posted on their accounts, including videos bearing signs of forced statements.

On March 8, Dzhangirov’s wife called a former Ukrainian MP, an opponent of the post-Euromaidan regimes, and said that her husband had disappeared. Dzhangirov did not answer phone calls, and nobody knew his whereabouts. On the same day, a 2.5 minute long video appeared on his Facebook page, in which Dmitry sits on a sofa dressed in jogging pants, t-shirt and a beanie on his head. He talks in a detached manner, without looking in the camera, about the losses inflicted by the Russian military on the Ukrainian civilians and the Russians’ terrible shelling of Ukrainian cities and columns of refugees. He calls upon the leadership of Russia and of the Russian army to stop the military actions and begin peace negotiations. The same video is posted on Dmitriy’s Youtube Channel Kapital under the title ‘No to war’.

This video is atypical because in all his previous videos, posted on his channel Kapital Dzhangirov is dressed more formally, sitting against a virtual background image and is more engaged in what he’s saying. In the comment accompanying this video on Facebook, written in the Russian language, a mistake is made which a well-educated Russian speaking person, like Dzhangirov, would never make. The last post on Dmitriy’s Facebook, before this video, goes back to February 23. In the comments below the video users write that Dmitriy was kidnapped by the SBU and ask him to say whatever SBU forces him to say in order to stay alive. There is a picture of Dzhangirov with the inscription on it: ‘Hostage of the SBU! Free Dzhangirov!’.

After this video, all the posts on Dzhangirov Facebook are about the Russian shelling of Ukrainian cities, videos with Russian soldiers taken as prisoners, scenes of pro-Ukrainian street protests in cities controlled by the Russian army. Many users comment that the writing style of these posts is poorer and does not match Dmitriy’s witty, elaborated manner.

Another prominent Ukrainian politician and activist, Vasiliy Volga, head of the Union of Leftist Forces in Ukraine, has also recently disappeared. A frequent guest on Russian talk shows; Volga has often criticized the Kyiv regime for sabotaging  the Minsk agreements and sowing hatred for Donetsk and Lugansk. He has also advocated for the good relations with Russia and openly defied Ukraine’s pro-Nazi activists and ideology. Volga was accused of high treason in November 2018; his house was searched by the SBU and Volga himself was briefly arrested and then released. He has had many opportunities to move to Russia but nevertheless decided to stay in Kyiv to lead the resistance against the anti-Russian politics and rhetoric of the Ukrainian government.

Volga is normally active on Facebook and has over 32 000 followers. The last post on his FB page dates from February 21. On March 2, a short video, entitled ‘Volunteer movement’, appeared on his YouTube channel. In the video, Volga is sitting against the white wall and looking past the camera he seems to be reading from an autocue or prompt about the massive heroism of the Ukrainian army and ordinary Ukrainians against the aggressor, and the terrible ‘catastrophe’ that has befallen towns of the Kyiv region. Volga states that he will organize a volunteer movement to help those who suffered in this catastrophe and ask people who know him to get in touch with him to help organize the movement.

There are only two videos on this YouTube channel; the other one was posted seven months ago. The video about the volunteer movement has clearly been staged and Volga was forced to record it. Volga did all his live FaceBook videos from his home. The YouTube video was recorded somewhere else. Rostislav Ishchenko, a well-known political commentator, in the article on Ukraina.ru media outlet writes that he fears for the lives of Volga and the other antifascists and tells them to do whatever the SBU asks of them, in order to stay alive.

Among the other pro-Russian activists arrested of late by the SBU, is Ian Taksiur. A well-known TV journalist, poet and writer, Taksiur is a fervent believer and defender of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. On March 10, armed people broke into Ian’s appartement in Kyiv and stating they were from the SBU, detained him without citing any charges. Currently 70-year old Taksiur is in the Lukyanivsky pre-trial detention centre in Kyiv. He has recently been diagnosed with cancer, and understandably is not feeling well. His daughter said that so far no charges have been brought against his father. He needs legal assistance and medical support. His daughter is planning a fundraiser to collect money for legal representation and other assistance for Ian, as reported by the Union of Orthodox Journalists.

The Kyiv regime is consistent in its actions during times of peace and times of war: since the victory of Euromaidan over pro-Russian Ukraine, it has been silencing and oppressing Ukrainian intellectuals, social and political activists, as well as leaders of public opinion who publicly criticized Kyiv for boycotting the Minsk agreements, severing ties with Russia and trying to eliminate Russian language and Russian culture from the public sphere in Ukraine. Only the names of three people currently being held as hostages by the SBU are mentioned here; however, their number is larger, probably in the tens and scores, if not hundreds. They are those who are not afraid to raise their voices in defense of Russian-Ukrainian friendship. Now they are considered traitors and who knows whether they are still alive. We can only hope and pray for them, as Ukraine will need them once the war is over, and a lasting peace comes; a peace that is impossible to achieve without first re-establishing good relations with Russia

Published at newcoldwar.org

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