A Look at Human Rights in War-torn Ukraine

Has Ukraine curtailed respect for human rights in the course of the one-year Russo-Ukraine war of 2014-15? For insights into this important aspect of Ukraine’s sovereignty I turned to Halya Coynash of the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group (www.khpg.org), which connects local human rights organizations throughout Ukraine. It fulfills a vital function as a resource and information center. 

Even though Ukraine is embroiled in a war with Russia, what is the status of human rights in Ukraine?

I think the war is getting in the way of vital reforms, which is frustrating since there finally seemed to be a political will for such reforms. Reforms are urgently needed, for example, for the police, the prosecutor’s office and most importantly, the judicial system. There are reforms as well as with anti-corruption measures, but they’re very slow in coming.

Some events may be occurring for the worse, or are at least dangerous for society, such as, for example, the arrests and detention of Ruslan Kotsaba and Andriy Zakharchuk on various dubious “treason” charges. Also, attempts to regulate what is shown or not shown on television are overly clumsy, and the creation of an Information Policy Ministry is, in my opinion, a very dangerous step for Ukraine. (http://khpg.org/index.php?id=1417619985) (I criticized the establishment of this Ministry on December 8, 2014.)

Since your organization has Kharkiv in its name, can you please summarize the status of human rights in this eastern Ukrainian city?

Because of its geographical position, its political leaders and politically more divided population, Kharkiv has been one of the targets of terrorist acts, which are almost certainly part of the undeclared war waged by Russia against Ukraine. The bomb on February 22 aimed at killing or maiming people preparing for a unity procession is only the latest of a number of such attacks. (Four people were killed as a result of this terrorist act. The Security Service of Ukraine has blamed Russia for this bombing.)

But there have been some positive court rulings (especially over protests in Gorky Park). One court ban, however, (http://khpg.org/index.php?id=1418820500) showed that the city authorities under Hennadiy Kernes have not renounced their repressive attempts to restrict peaceful protests.

Has Russia’s conduct during its war with Ukraine been in accordance with globally accepted conventions regarding war, prisoners of war, protecting civilian lives and human rights?

Anything but. I think there are ever increasing grounds for taking Russia and its proxies to the International Criminal Court and it is therefore very important that Ukraine ratifies the Rome Statute that established four core international crimes: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression. Those crimes shall not be subject to any statute of limitations. Russia has not declared war but is fighting in Ukraine, and is providing its proxies with sophisticated weapons that they have already used to down a passenger airliner, to shell Mariupol, and a bus at a checkpoint (where there was every likelihood of hitting a civilian target). It is also guilty of torture, breaches of the Geneva Conventions, abduction, and gross violations of the European Convention in its treatment of Nadiya Savchenko.

And that’s just to begin with.

Do you think President Poroshenko will maintain human rights principles after the war while protecting Ukraine’s independence, statehood and sovereignty?

I hope so. Maidan is a responsibility – his and also those Ukrainians who will, I hope, not allow Ukraine’s new leaders to revert to old patterns.

Does the continued imprisonment of Nadiya Savchenko and others constitute a case of prisoners of war or are they victims of human rights violations? Have international agencies been contacted on their behalf? 

To the last question, yes. Amnesty International has responded with regard to Sentsov and Kolchenko, but I don’t think it or Human Rights Watch have responded about Nadiya Savchenko – I don’t know or understand why not.

Formally, Nadiya Savchenko is not a POW because there is no official state of war. She has been recognized by EU, USA, PACE, etc. as falling under the first Minsk agreement – she is illegally held. Particularly because she was captured by Kremlin-backed militants in Luhansk oblast and abducted to Russia.

Oleg Sentsov and Oleksander Kolchenko are political prisoners. There are others who I believe are being held illegally, but each case is specific and doesn’t fall into simple categories.

What is status of Ruslan Kotsaba, about who you wrote recently on your website? 

He is still in detention with the appeals court unfortunately upholding a wrong decision (http://khpg.org/en/index.php?id=1424091914).

Is Russia a threat to regional peace, stability and justice or is it a global threat that the free world must deal with?

Both! Even if it is mainly a threat to the region, its breach of fundamental principles of international law and the fact that some of the countries are members of NATO mean that the West is reacting to Russia much too slowly, much too weakly.

Beyond merely Russia, what are the major external threats to human rights in Ukraine? And internal? 

External – I would say only Russia.

Internally, all the bitterness, the chaos and destruction caused by the war, and the desperate difficulty that the situation creates for carrying out real reforms.

What is the state of human rights for Ukrainians in Russia? Are their cultural, linguistic, religious and national rights threatened because of Russia’s war with Ukraine?

I haven’t heard of anything particular, but I don’t think their rights as a national minority have ever been greatly observed. 

Is the Ukrainian nation – the people – aware enough of human rights abuses and their rights as citizens to defend their human rights? Will the government help them protect their rights?

By comparison with Russians, for example, yes, but probably not like in Canada and the United States. There is still a huge weight of cynicism and brutal realism about a system where the police is not seen as a protector of the population, and people don’t expect justice from the courts. I think that perpetuates corruption and fatalism. But not always because Maidan won, so awareness is growing. As for the second question – well, I hope so!

How can Ukrainians in the Diaspora and free world in general help in preserving human rights in Ukraine?

Through helping inform their societies and governments about what is happening, through pressure on their governments, for example, to take much tougher measures against Russia, which is the main source of Ukraine’s problems at the moment. 

I think it is also important not to be tolerant of failings of the new administration. President Viktor Yushchenko’s failure to deliver on reforms was tolerated for too long because the people didn’t want to help Russia and the opposition by criticizing a popular pro-Ukrainian president. And also because many people in the Diaspora liked his stands on the Holodomor, on Shukhevych (Roman Shukhevych-Taras Chuprynka, commander in chief of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army killed in a skirmish with MVD in March 1950) and Bandera (Stepan Bandera, leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists assassinated by a Russian agent in October 1959), and did not consider the fact that this was happening in lieu of urgently needed reforms.

I will be tapping Halya Coynash’s insights for time to time in future blogs.

Debaltseve: Russia’s Pyrrhic Victory

Debaltseve – perhaps a sleepy town tucked away in the southeastern corner of Ukraine, in the Donetsk oblast, not centrally located, some 201 km (125 miles) from Rostov on Don, a major Russian city, would not have attracted any interest if it weren’t for the Russo-Ukraine War of 2014-15.

The city, with a current population of 25,000, was established in 1878 when railway station was opened in Donetsk. Russia’s self-styled victory last week over combined Ukrainian forces at Debaltseve’s strategic railway station, a local landmark, shoved the town to the forefront of global attention.

News reports from the battlefront bolstered by Russia’s propaganda gave the impression of a significant military defeat for Kyiv and a slap in the face of President Poroshenko. Some pundits have called the evacuation of about 2,000-3,000 troops Ukraine’s Dunkirk. Others have opined that what they described as an insurmountable embarrassment signals the beginning of the end for Ukraine’s military campaign to rid its land of Russian invaders.

However, the triumph was more Pyrrhic for Russia than fatal for Ukraine.

“We’re not talking about a defeat,” declared Valeriy, my retired airborne friend from Lviv, who I have cited several times in past blogs. “Our military and political leaderships were presented with the task of deciding several issues regarding the defense of Debaltseve.”

Indeed, the last days of the Russian army’s siege of Debaltseve looked bleak for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, National Guard and volunteer battalions. War correspondents were filling newspaper columns and web pages with disappointing accounts about Ukraine’s war effort, without scratching the surface in search of news about what was being planned elsewhere, in Kyiv and command headquarters.

Not knowing if the siege would end with a surrender, evacuation or slaughter, Vladimir Putin vulgarly urged Ukrainian soldiers to surrender to save their lives – Nazi and Japanese radio propagandists tried this ruse during World War Two.

“Nuts,” as General Anthony McAuliffe famously replied to Nazi officers during the defense of Bastogne.

After Ukrainian soldiers strategically withdrew, Putin continued his typical insensitivity by saying: “It’s tough to lose. But life is life. It just goes on. No need to dwell on it.” Those words should be engraved on his tombstone.

Valeriy, who has more than 28 years of airborne experience as a soldier and instructor first with the Soviet army and later independent Ukraine’s armed forces, observed: “Our forces pretty competently and often heroically engaged the enemy and caused considerable damage to his soldiers’ lives and equipment.”

After the withdrawal, Poroshenko explained to the nation what had happened at Debaltseve.

“We can assert that the Armed Forces of Ukraine have fulfilled their tasks completely. This position and success were urgently necessary for us in the course of the Minsk negotiations and after them. We managed to show to the whole world the true face of bandits-separatists backed by Russia, which acted as guarantor and direct participant of the Minsk negotiations.

“We were asserting and proved: Debaltseve was under our control, there was no encirclement, and our troops left the area in a planned and organized manner with all the heavy weaponry: tanks, APCs, self-propelled artillery and vehicles…

“It is a strong evidence of combat readiness of the Armed Forces and efficiency of the military command. I can say that despite tough artillery and MLRS shelling, according to the recent data, we have 30 wounded out of more than 2,000 warriors. The information is being collected and may be clarified.

“I would like to say that Russia, which yesterday required the Ukrainian warriors to lay down arms, raise the white flag and surrender, was put to shame by the given actions. Ukrainian warriors honorably approved the high rank of the Ukrainian Defender of the Homeland. As I promised, they repelled those who tried to encircle them and left Debaltseve pursuant to my command, which I gave yesterday, when Russian servicemen forbade the OSCE representatives to come to Debaltseve to reaffirm our readiness to begin the withdrawal of heavy weaponry and demonstrate the absence of encirclement. They knew it was not true. We demonstrated and proved that with our operation. We are holding the new defense lines.”

Valeriy similarly explained that Ukraine won time to remobilize and regroup its units, and undergo fresh training with restored weaponry for its replacement frontline military units. New defensive lines are being established in the strategic southeastern port city of Mariupol, 188 km (117 miles) south on the shores of the Sea of Azov.

“Thanks to the bravery in Debaltseve, we were able move the line of defense to the more important location of Mariupol and consequently strengthen defense readiness there,” he said.

Enemy losses in battles around Debaltseve in September and October of last year totaled some 3,000 killed and two to three times more wounded. Enemy losses after Minsk 2 were more than 800 killed and about two to three times more wounded.

“We also suffered significant losses, but far fewer,” he wrote.

However, Valeriy said the Ukrainian troops did not withdraw without troubles of their own and incurred losses but according to most estimates some 80% of them relocated to new defense positions, where they could rebuild and plan to fight another day.

Ukrainian soldiers displayed heroism in battle with many of them saying that would rather have fought to the last soldier than withdraw. There was also an account of one battalion, which was located on another side of Debaltseve, still holding its position after the order to withdraw.

Significantly, Debaltseve served as a major political defeat for Russia and Putin because it showed that even after coming to terms about a new ceasefire agreement in Minsk, Russian soldiers and mercenaries continued escalating their hostility. Putin again demonstrated that he is not a leader who could be trusted. Russian deceit led free world leaders to threaten deeper sanctions. Valeriy observed that the non-combatant participants of the negotiations in Minsk belatedly realized that the peacemaker wreath would not be theirs and Putin is probably worse than Hitler because the former has his finger on the nuclear button.

“The negotiations barely concluded as ‘Moskali’ moved to seize Debaltseve with such strength and equipment that it was surprising that our soldiers were even able to withstand the assault for as long as they did,” Valeriy said. “Therefore there are reasons to expect that next time the West will stop expressing ‘deep concern’ and will proceed to provide Ukraine with normal weapons and equipment. Nobody is asking them to fight in our place. Give us instructors for the new generation of weapons.”

Intensifying economic and financial sanctions against Russia and Russians is another imperative that Valeriy cited though, he cautioned, not one for the future but an urgent need because, as he emphasized, Ukrainians are dying. European tycoons are opposed to sanctions because they fear they would also suffer financial losses, he admitted, but if they were made to realize that their losses would be worse when the Russian armies enter Warsaw, Prague or the Baltics, then perhaps they would agree with sanctions.

“It’s better to stop the aggressor in Ukraine rather than lament for the murdered and raped residents of Europe. After all, did they forget what the ‘liberators’ did in 1945?” Valeriy asked.

Russian dishonesty, aggression and imperialism were again presented on center stage. Ceasefire agreements and sanctions have had no effect on Putin’s belligerence. Valeriy and Dmytro Tymchuk, a Ukrainian military officer and member of the Verkhovna Rada, have warned that fresh Russian troops are pouring into Ukraine. Ukraine’s military said last Friday more than 20 Russian tanks, 10 self-propelled artillery systems, 15 trucks and busloads of soldiers crossed Ukraine’s border and headed toward Novoazovsk, a Russian-held town east of Mariupol.

Tymchuk said there were signs that mercenary forces would try to seize additional territory. In a posting on Facebook, he said it appeared the terrorists were preparing to advance north from Debaltseve.

“The entire world must appreciate that Ukraine is fighting against one of the world’s strongest armies, which has nuclear weapons. Things don’t always happen as planned but we are holding our own. And ‘Putler’s’ plans to occupy the southeast of our country by winter and seal itself in Transdnistria have failed,” Valeriy wrote.

“So we not only hope for victory but we also believe in it. The only question is where and when,” he concluded.

And with you, the free world also hopes and believes.