On August 5, Ukraine witnessed the first-ever collective one-day hunger strike of political prisoners against torture and murder at Vinnytsia Penitentiary No. 86. 162 people participated in the hunger strike, 92 of whom were political prisoners.
The following took part in the hunger strike
Vinnytsia Correctional Colony No. 86:
Alexander Melnik, Yagoda, Vilchenko , Lomakin, Samir Bedrashko , Mikhail Sazonov, Dzyuba, Nikolai Pyatachenko , Kotenko, Shapran , Vitaly Kigilchenko , Batarev , Kelyukin , Yarodar Vitlinets.
Another 17 people supported the hunger strike.
Pyatikhatka penal colony No. 122, Dnipropetrovsk region:
Yuriy Petrovsky.
Another 12 people supported the hunger strike.
Nikolaev pre-trial detention center:
Igor Savitsky, Anatoly Nikolaev.
Another 7 people supported the hunger strike.
Lviv pretrial detention center:
Svetlana Novitskaya, Inna Ivanochko Inna.
Another 4 people supported the hunger strike.
Lukyanivskiy pre-trial detention center, Kyiv:
Mikhail Vasiliev, Andrey Kuznetsov, Konstantin Kukshtel , Ilya Druga, Alexander Burgun , Vasyl Yudakov.
Another 23 people supported the hunger strike.
Kyiv, political prisoners under house arrest:
Mikhail Kononovich, Alexander Kononovich, Georgy Buiko, Anatoly Miruta.
A total of 92 political prisoners.
At least 50 communists and anti-fascists, as well as another 20 relatives of political prisoners,
also carried out a one-day hunger strike while free in Ukraine.
The organizers of the resistance action were the Ukrainian Association for the Protection of the Rights of Political Prisoners and Human Rights, founded by the Kononovich brothers, and the platform of International Solidarity for Political Prisoners.
The Anti-Imperialist Front and the People’s Front (of Turkey) supported the call of Ukrainian political prisoners and mobilized hundreds of comrades to participate in a one-day hunger strike and solidarity actions.
The voice of Ukrainian political prisoners was widely heard throughout the world and caused a great wave of solidarity.
Outside of Ukraine, 260 people from 15 countries participated in a one-day hunger strike in support of Ukrainian political prisoners. Several dozen other communist, anti-fascist, and anti-imperialist organizations and individual activists expressed their solidarity with statements, publications on their Internet resources, and photographs in support of the action.
Distribution of hunger strikers by country:
- Ukraine: 162, including 92 political prisoners
- Greece: 117, including 14 political prisoners
- Summer camp in France: 62
- Turkey: 25, including 9 political prisoners
- Austria: 16
- Belarus: 8
- Great Britain: 7
- Russia: 5
- Basque Country: 5 political prisoners
- Germany: 4
- France: 4
- Netherlands: 3
- Serbia: 2
- Belgium: 2
- Latvia: 1
- China: 1
- Spain: 1
Total: 425 people from 16 countries.
Representatives of the Anti-Imperialist Front in their videos spoke out against the repressions of the fascist regime in Ukraine and demanded an immediate end to the torture of political prisoners.
Anti-imperialist Front – Great Britain:
“All repression and torture must stop immediately! Long live resistance! Long live international solidarity!”
Anti-imperialist Front – Greece:
“The murderous policies of the fascist regime in Ukraine, backed by EU-US imperialism, must end! International solidarity can save the lives of political prisoners currently being tortured. We call on everyone to stand with Ukrainian political prisoners!”
Anti-imperialist Front – Netherlands:
“The same methods that the Zionists use against Palestinian prisoners are used by the Ukrainian Nazis in their concentration camps in Ukraine.”
Political prisoners in Turkey, who have become an example of resistance for Ukrainian political prisoners, have supported their comrades in Ukraine. Nine political prisoners in Tekirdağ F-Type Prison No. 2 joined a one-day hunger strike and submitted a petition to the Ukrainian Embassy calling for an end to the torture of prisoners in Ukrainian prisons.
Five prisoners from the Revolutionary People’s Diary organization in Tekirdağ Prison No. 2 did not take part in the hunger strike, but joined the call and expressed their solidarity with Ukrainian prisoners.
Members of the Turkish Association of Families of Political Prisoners (TAYAD) held a one-day hunger strike in solidarity and recorded a video in which they stated:
“Ukrainian political prisoners are not alone! Their demands must be met!”
In condemnation of the repression and torture suffered by Ukrainian political prisoners by Zelenskyy’s fascist state, with the indispensable support of NATO, and in a show of solidarity, several Basque political prisoners have conducted a 24-hour hunger strike. Their names are:
- Garicoitz Etxeberria
- J.M. Etxeberria “Goyerri”
- Hon Kepa Preciado
- Patxi Ruiz
- Miquel San Sebastián
On August 5, 62 participants of the People’s Front and Anti-Imperialist Front summer camp, who had gathered from various European countries for joint recreation and political work, held a one-day hunger strike in solidarity with Ukrainian political prisoners and sent dozens of photographs with the words: “Stop torture and murder in Vinnytsia Colony No. 86!”
Former Ukrainian political prisoners currently held abroad, Ruslan Kotsaba and Sergey Tkachenko, supported their compatriots’ protest and recorded a video protesting torture and murder in Vinnytsia’s Penal Colony No. 86.
Anti-fascist activist Dmitry Kostenko from Moscow announced a three-week hunger strike from August 1 in solidarity with political prisoners in Ukraine.
Former political prisoner from Krasnoyarsk, Ekaterina Fatyanova, who spent a year in a correctional facility for distributing a communist newspaper, supported the hunger strike.
A video message of solidarity with Ukrainian political prisoners came from Poland:
“We strongly oppose the torture of political prisoners in Ukraine.
Your struggle is also the struggle of people in other parts of the world.
We must create a movement of solidarity with the people of Gaza, Lebanon and Iran and an international movement against war so that the world will be peaceful in the future.”
And also from Tunisia:
“Dear comrades in the resistance in Vinnytsia prison, your determination and resistance are a source of pride for us, as is the determination of the Palestinian prisoners and hostages, as well as other communist comrades held in custody around the world.
Your courage in the face of oppression inspires us to continue and intensify our struggle against the dying monster of capitalism and imperialism until the inevitable victory of socialism for the benefit of the oppressed peoples.”
Members of the Serbian Radical Left Party held a protest against the torture and murder of political prisoners in Vinnytsia Prison No. 86 in front of the Ukrainian Embassy in Belgrade.
Serbian comrades tried to handover a letter to the embassy, but were pushed back by the police.
A protest rally against torture in Vinnytsia Prison No. 86 took place near the Ukrainian embassy in London.
Participants chanted slogans:
Who is the terrorist? The Ukrainian state!
Who is the Nazi? The Ukrainian state!
Who is the fascist? The Ukrainian state!
Down with fascism, down with imperialism!
Long live justice!
The rally was organized by the Popular Front (UK), the Anti-Imperialist Front, the IUAFS, and the CPGB-ML.
In Madrid, anti-imperialist activists held a picket in front of the Ukrainian embassy, despite threats from the police.
Nearly 40 organizations from a dozen countries supported the action of Ukrainian political prisoners:
- Anti-imperialist Front
- People’s Front (Turkey)
- TAYAD (Turkey)
- Delegation “Until Victory”
- Group Yorum
- Borotba (Ukraine-Russia)
- Union of Communists of Ukraine (in Ukraine)
- Bultza EHM-L (Basque Country)
- Committee of Solidarity of the Basque Country with Donbass (Basque Country)
- Russian Communist Labor Party (Russia)
- Revolutionary Communist Union of Youth (Bolsheviks) (Russia)
- Vanguard of the Red Youth of Labor Russia (Russia)
- Venceremos Movement (Russia)
- Krasnogvardeisky branch of the Union of Moscow Workers (Russia)
- Labor Russia Party (Russia)
- Social Center “October” (Spain)
- Coordinating Council of Communist Cells – Anti-imperialist Movements of Madrid (Spain)
- Madrid Platform against NATO and military bases (Spain)
- Communist Platform of Ciudad Real (Spain)
- Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain (Spain)
- Red Network (Spain)
- Andalusian Workers’ Union (Spain)
- SODEPAU (Valencia, Spain)
- Proletarian Union (Spain)
- International organization “Red Aid”
- Movement Against Repression (Spain)
- Herritar Batasuna
- Anti-Imperialist Front – Euskal-Errii
- ASSE ANTIIMPERIALISTA (Italy)
- Workers World (USA)
- Resistir.info (Portugal)
- All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (Russia)
- Coordination of Solidarity with Palestine (Rome, Italy)
- Union for Communist Reconstruction (France)
- Campaign for the Freedom of the Kononovich Brothers, Free-Kononovich.de (Germany)
- Research Group of the International Labour Movement (Germany)
- September 23 Movement (Bulgaria)
- Party of the Radical Left (Serbia)
- New communist party (Great Britain)
- And International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity (Great Britain)
The number of hunger strikers and comrades who supported the resistance is not final. Information continues to arrive from various countries.
According to the Association for the Protection of the Rights of Political Prisoners and Human Rights, systematic beatings of political prisoners in Vinnytsia colony No. 86 stopped even at the stage of preparation for the 1-day hunger strike. After the announcement of the action, the administration of the colony backed down and began to transfer parcels and phone calls to the resistance leader Alexander Melnik, who is in the punishment cell.
On August 7, it was reported that Ukrainian political prisoner Igor Savitsky from the Nikolaev pretrial detention center had been placed in solitary confinement due to his participation in a hunger strike on August 5. Internationalists protested this arbitrary action by sending emails to the pretrial detention center administration demanding Igor’s return from solitary confinement to his cell.
The campaign in support of the resistance of Ukrainian political prisoners continues.
Freedom for political prisoners!
Long live the resistance!
Down with the fascist regime in Ukraine!
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