Ukrainian dissident reveals brutal censorship and repression by the Kyiv regime
Thomas Fazi
Thomas Fazi'a Substack
"There is no freedom of speech whatsoever in Ukraine", says dissident journalist Vasyl Muravytskyi
Pascal Lottaz, Associate Professor for Neutrality Studies at Kyoto University’s Faculty of Law and Hakubi Center, whose YouTube channel I strongly recommend you follow, has published a fascinating video interview with a Ukrainian dissident journalist in exile, Vasyl Muravytskyi.
Muravytskyi, who had written several critical reports of the post-Euromaidan Ukrainian regime and its handling of the civil war in Ukraine, was arrested in August 2017 by Ukrainian law enforcement and charged with high treason, threatening the territorial integrity of Ukraine, inciting hatred, and even participating in a terrorist organisation. He spent 11 months in prison.
During that time, he received support from several international human rights and journalist organisations. The Swiss human rights organisation Solidarity Network recognised him as a prisoner of conscience, while the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders in France demanded his release. Amnesty International also recognised him as a prisoner of conscience.
In a December 2017 report, the organisation noted:
💬 The very serious allegations against Vasyl Muravytskyi stem from a number of publications, which were published as incriminating evidence against him on 11 September by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) on its Facebook page. After analyzing the evidence listed therein, Amnesty International is concerned that all the charges against Vasyl Muravytskyi arise from him peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression, which is essential for his professional activities as a journalist. In the articles authored by Vasyl Muravytskyi, and cited by the SBU as incriminating evidence, he offers sharp criticism of the current Ukrainian authorities and individual officials, and does so without using a pseudonym or otherwise concealing his name. In particular, he criticises public statements and the policy approach of the government in Kyiv towards the conflict in eastern Ukraine and Russian-occupied Crimea. While this criticism might sound very unpleasant to those it is addressed to, it is important to note that Muravytskyi does not resort to inciting violence or otherwise provoking hatred towards any ethnic or religious groups.
Thanks to Amnesty International, Muravytskyi was able to obtain political asylum in Finland on grounds that he was being politically persecuted by the Ukrainian authorities. He still lives there today.
In his eye-opening interview with Lottaz, Muravytskyi sheds light on the brutal reality faced by dissidents under the current Ukrainian regime. Far from the shining example of democracy that it is purported to be in the West, Ukraine is in fact a quasi-totalitarian state where any criticism of the government — and especially of the war — is fiercely repressed. This was already the case before 2022 — as Muravytskyi’s own experience shows — but things have gotten infinitely worse since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Given how bad the situation is even the West, where any dissenting opinion on the war tends to be characterised and treated as dangerous “disinformation” or even worse as “foreign interference” (i.e., potential treason), it’s not entirely surprising to learn that the same is happening in Ukraine, just on much bigger and more intense scale. Yet, the reality described by Muravytskyi is likely to surprise even the most hardened cynic. Here I’ve selected the main highlights from the talk (edited for clarity):
On repression in Ukraine
💬 Muravytskyi: One the biggest misconceptions about Ukraine [in the West] is that freedom of speech is still alive in the country. There is no freedom of speech whatsoever in Ukraine. Everything is being censored. I was persecuted and then sent to prison because I [publicly] criticised the actions of the current Ukrainian regime. But there are cases, today, of people being sent to prison not for their public statements but even just for their personal, intimate discussions. I know of the case of a man who simply had a group chat on Telegram with his wife and son where he discussed the current war, and where he shared some links from Russian media that were critical about the war. For this he was sent to prison for ten years. The situation in Ukraine is far, far worse than people in the West might think.
Lottaz: How is it possible that although inside Ukraine there is so much heavy-handed censorship and repression going on, the narrative in the West continues to be that Ukraine is actually a well-functioning democracy? Why is it that news of what’s actually happening in Ukraine is not getting out in the West?
Muravytskyi: The reason is simple: Ukraine is simply a tool in this global war against Russia and the tool needs to be sharp.
In other words, Muravytskyi is implying that Western governments are perfectly aware of the repression going on in Ukraine and are perfectly fine with it because it serves the goal of the continuation of the proxy war against Russia; indeed, one may reasonably presume that Western governments themselves are actually encouraging the repression behind closed doors.
Most Ukrainians want peace — but they aren’t allowed to say so
💬 Lottaz: What is the mood in Ukraine with regard to the war?
Muravytskyi: The vast majority of people in Ukraine want to end the war as soon as possible. People are fleeing en masse, trying to not get mobilised. Even in the westernmost part of Ukraine, after speaking to many people, I’ve concluded that only about two percent of the people who were mobilised did so out of their own free will.
Lottaz: So almost everybody in Ukraine wants the war to end. But the question is how to end it. Do you think that a big number of Ukrainians would be willing to change the borders of Ukraine in order to end the war — i.e., to give up the regions in the east?
Muravytskyi: I’m not able to answer to this question because people are simply afraid to even talk about that. If you’re having a personal conversation, a phone call with a close friend, and you say stuff like that, there have been cases where people have been sent to prison for five years simply for sharing such thoughts. On one occasion, one man was talking to his fellow employees on a smoke break and he shared a similar thought about changing Ukraine’s borders [in order to achieve peace]; apparently one of his co-workers had a recording device placed on him by the secret service and that man was persecuted simply for sharing his thoughts on a small break with his his colleagues.
There is a phenomenon which sociology cannot explain; it’s similar to schizophrenia, where you give two different answers to two very similar questions. If the question is “Do you want to end the war as soon as possible?” people say “yes”, but if the next question is “Are you willing to redraw Ukraine’s map?”, people will say “absolutely not”, because if they say “yes” that would be potentially socially very dangerous, it would be tantamount to social suicide. So we really have no way of knowing what the real preferences of people in Ukraine actually are today about how to end the war because they’re not able to express their opinions freely. It’s very dangerous to do so. However, people are very tired of the war, of the consequences of the war, there are areas now where people get electricity only for two hours a day.
So much for the “agency” argument that is constantly thrown around in the West: i.e., that we should continue militarily supporting Ukraine in its government’s maximalist victory-at-all-costs strategy because this is what Ukrainians want.
💬 Lottaz: Would you want Ukraine to surrender? If that was an option, would you say “Yes, surrender is better than this”?
Muravytskyi: Even though I am in Finland now I am still a Ukrainian citizen so I am not able to answer that question otherwise there will be a case opened against me and this is a perfect example of how freedom of speech does not exist in Ukraine at the moment. But there is a Chinese saying that goes: “Sometimes to lose a war is to win a war and to win a war is to lose”.
Lottaz: Are you relieved that you are now living in a society where you can do your job as a journalist without being persecuted?
Muravytskyi: It’s more than just relief because if I were in Ukraine now I would have been killed or assassinated or put back into prison.
Why Ukraine can’t win this war
💬 Lottaz: What is the biggest obstacle to peace in Ukraine today? Is it the presence of ultra-right-wing forces that makes it impossible for politicians in Ukraine to pursue a diplomatic solution or is it the pervasive corruption inside the government that prevents a solution of this kind?
Muravytskyi: The main factor stopping Ukraine from moving in this direction is the false belief that that victory is inevitable, as Zelenskyy said. However, this is a lie. Russia has bigger military and human resources. There is another saying that goes: “When the rich man loses his riches, the poor man dies”. This is also very true. I don’t want uh Ukraine to fall, I want Ukraine to to remain itself, I want its people and culture to remain themselves. However, the country has lost so much power — last year Ukraine registered its all-time lowest birth rate in 300 years — that unless there is a break of some kind or unless Russia collapses, there is now way to change this situation. Even if the war stops right away, it will take decades to bring Ukraine back to the level of 2022.
Muravytskyi’s bleak but entirely realistic assessment is yet another reminder that those in the West who pose as Ukraine’s friends while pushing for never-ending war are in fact its worse enemies. For NATO, Ukraine is little more than a pawn in a deadly geopolitical game — one that is quite literally destroying Ukraine and robbing it of any meaningful future.
Peace is the only way forward
💬 Lottaz: Finally, is there anything else that you would like the world to know, especially in the West, after two and a half years of war?
Muravytskyi: If you want Ukraine to survive, if you want the Ukrainian people to survive, then you need to stop the war — right here, right now.
Powerful words, with which I couldn’t agree more. Indeed, this is exactly the case we made in our letter in support of peace negotiations in Ukraine that was recently published in the Financial Times.
Several other topics are covered in the interview as well. I strongly recommend you watch the full conversation on Lottaz’s channel:
Also be sure to follow Pascal Lottaz on YouTube, X and Substack.
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Thomas Fazi
Website: thomasfazi.net
Twitter: @battleforeurope
Latest book: The Covid Consensus: The Global Assault on Democracy and the Poor—A Critique from the Left (co-authored with Toby Green)
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Collage: © Maria Petrova / Zaborona. Photo: AP Photo / Libkos. Video: You Tube
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