Ukrainians demonstrate in Berlin to defend democratic rights against the Zelensky regime

The WSWS calls on all its readers to sign this petition for the release of the Ukrainian socialist Bogdan Syrotiuk.

Last Sunday, a rally organized by Ukrainians against the war in Ukraine and the dictatorship of the Zelensky regime took place in Berlin.

The call for the rally was:

We don’t want men in Ukraine to be kidnapped, beaten and held in basements. We demand open borders and respect for human rights. We would also like to remember the men who died after being abducted by the Territorial Recruitment Center (TCC). We invite everyone. Many of you still have relatives, fathers, brothers and sons in Ukraine who are in danger at the hands of the gangster authorities!

The demonstration in Berlin against the Zelensky regime in Ukraine

The rally was organized by the “Alliance of the Post-Soviet Left” (BPL), a group of mostly young exiles from Russia, Ukraine and other former Soviet republics in Germany. In October this year, the group released a statement defending Ukrainian socialist and anti-war activist Bogdan Syrotiuk, who has now been imprisoned by the Zelensky regime for more than six months.

Reporter from the World Socialist Web Site were present at the demonstration, distributed leaflets about Bogdan’s imprisonment and spoke to participants about the situation in Ukraine and the prospect of an end to the war.

Shekawho originally comes from Kharkiv and only came to Germany one day before the start of the war, reported on the situation in Ukraine:

The Ukrainian men are currently having to hide and stay at home because they are afraid of the TCK, the Ukrainian military. My brother also has to hide. He is only 21 years old. He has no desire to go to war and lose his life.

The Ukrainian government is very corrupt. That’s my opinion.

I was lucky that I left Ukraine the day before the war. And I want all Ukrainian men who want that to be able to leave Ukraine. I wish you all peace and well-being.

One protester who introduced himself under the name “Whitewind” is from Siberia. From there he came to Germany to avoid being drafted into Russia. He said:

I see a clear connection between the war in Ukraine and the wars in other countries, like now in Gaza. Capitalists support militarism in every country, including here in Germany. Politicians everywhere say that the state needs more tax money for weapons, even though there are enormous social problems for workers everywhere.

He explained the connection between the war in Ukraine and capitalism:

I heard that there are plans for new factories here in Germany to produce weapons for Ukraine. Weapons companies like Rheinmetall stand to make enormous profits from the war, but at the same time there are similar plans to produce weapons in Poland, where workers there are employed at lower wages and can undercut the costs of German manufacturers. This is all part of the logic of the capitalist system.

About the possible danger of the war escalating into a nuclear war, he said:

It is a very dangerous situation since several of the warring countries have nuclear weapons. The only solution is a movement from below, by workers in every country, against capitalism. From this perspective, I see the need to support all victims like Bogdan Syrotiuk, who were imprisoned for their opposition to the war.

Andrey

WSWS reporters had a long conversation Andreywho had started studying in Germany before the start of the war and thus avoided compulsory military service in Ukraine. He described the situation in Ukraine in detail:

Basically, most Ukrainians are imprisoned in their own country and cannot live properly. In many cases they are unable to carry out their profession properly. People are attacked and hunted on the streets. They are forcibly drafted. Basically everyone knows that. Less well known are the numerous cases of torture and murder in Ukrainian police stations.

We are here in part to report on these cases, to describe them, and to say that these cases actually exist. They are not documented by Russian media or anything like that, but by Ukrainian media, including quite large ones, including those that have previously supported President Zelensky.

The mainstream media in Ukraine is therefore well informed about the cases of torture and murders in Ukrainian commissariats. Unfortunately, that is not the case here in Germany, here in the EU.

Of course we understand why. We understand that this is seen as part of the Russian narrative. However, we cannot simply ignore the widespread cases of torture.

There is a big class difference between those who were drafted and those who were not drafted, Andrei said:

Basically, those who are drafted are those who couldn’t afford to pay the bribes, who couldn’t afford to bribe the doctors to write the tickets to avoid military service.

We are currently living in a surreal situation in which the Ukrainian state employs almost a million police officers. The task of these police officers is very clear. They are there to enforce conscription and keep Zelensky’s increasingly less democratic government in power. They are not there to protect Ukraine’s “democracy” on the streets.

There is a lot of discussion in Ukraine about why people are drafted and forcibly recruited. For example, fifty-year-olds, people with severe tuberculosis, people with some types of cancer, but not the wide range of police officers who are numerous in Ukraine, almost as large as the Ukrainian army itself. This is a surreal situation.

Regarding the role of the German pseudo-left parties, all of which support the war in Ukraine, Andrej explained:

The Left Party, perhaps we are old-fashioned, but from our point of view, a left-wing party should stand for egalitarian transformations of societies, for the harmonization of rules and for a state in which the rules apply equally to all people – at least. And also for supporting those who are most at risk and most vulnerable. And the most vulnerable in Ukraine are not the police or the Ukrainian state or anything else prioritized by the European parties, especially the “left”. The priority should be Ukrainian citizens, their rights, etc. …

We are seeing the Greens transform into a war party. We see the ignoring of the crimes against humanity in Ukraine, the crimes against large parts of the Ukrainian population, which are documented and are not being dealt with by the federal government. We see very clearly that the parties that present themselves as left-wing do not actually pursue left-wing policies. We live in a surreal situation where both the left and the right agree that the fact that Russia is attacking Ukraine essentially allows the Ukrainian government to use virtually the same or even worse methods than the Russian government, to recruit their people. In Russia, for example, people can leave the country. The Russians don’t have to bribe their personnel to get out of Russia.

Andrei knew about Bogdan Syrotiuk’s arrest and said:

Bogdan is one of many people who find themselves in a situation where spreading information and talking about the Ukrainian government’s methods leads to criminal prosecution in the form of a political trial. Of course, it is surreal that his case is not receiving much attention in the German media here.

Unfortunately, he’s not the only one. This is a more systematic way of dealing with opposition voices in Ukraine. One of the people we are more familiar with as an organization is Sheliazhenko, the Ukrainian pacifist who basically just wrote a letter to Zelensky supporting unarmed resistance to the Russian invasion. An indictment was then drawn up against him.

When asked how the war could be ended, Andrei said:

It was clear to us from the start and now it is even more obvious to broader circles of European governments and parties: the war will at some point end in talks, in a peace agreement. We were stunned by the decision of the Ukrainian government, supported and essentially almost forced by Boris Johnson personally and by Western governments (to end the negotiations in March 2022).

The warmongering role of Boris Johnson personally and the lack of compromise in Istanbul in March 2022 have partly led to Ukraine risking losing even more land. It has already cost tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of lives. Millions are being driven out of the country, women and children.

There were clear interests behind the war, Andrej said:

Obviously, there are interest groups that advocate further wars, find arguments and advocate for further militarization. The NATO budget is ten times larger than the Russian military budget. I don’t really see how a further five to six times overshoot would improve the situation. Personally, I and our organization as a whole see neither a military end to this war nor an improvement in the situation in Ukraine.

When the WSWS reporters presented their view that the war could only be stopped through the mobilization and unification of the Ukrainian, Russian and international working classes, Andrei said:

We had a meeting of more than 70 anti-war activists from Ukraine and Russia in Cologne. We have come to the conclusion that peace must come “from below” and that sustainable peace and long-term peace in Europe can fundamentally only be achieved through democratization, only by creating opportunities for the state to democratize.

The rally in Berlin against the dictatorial forms of rule of the Zelensky regime is of great importance. It illustrates the rapidly growing resistance of the Ukrainian working class to the war. But there should be no illusions. The war cannot be stopped by putting pressure on the governments themselves that are waging the war. They represent the class interests of an obscenely wealthy ruling class that will not allow any pressure to dissuade it from its course.

What is necessary is the building of a socialist anti-war movement that unites the Ukrainian, Russian and international working classes and fights for the overthrow of capitalism.