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Tuesday, 27 February 2018 14:49

RUSSIA'S CRUELTY TO UKRAINIAN HOSTAGES CONTINUES

Michael MacKay, Radio Lemberg, 27.02.2018 
 
Russia is a regime of state terrorism. Since Russia invaded Ukraine four years ago it has extended its rule – by violence and torture and fear – to Ukraine’s southern region of Crimea and to part of Ukraine’s eastern region of Donbas. Agents of the Russian terrorist regime, like the Federal Security Service (FSB), abduct Ukrainians. The Russians torture Ukrainians, put them up to show trials in kangaroo courts, and hold them hostage in prisons in Crimea, in basement dungeons in Donbas, or in the gulag in the Russian Federation.
 
Delicate negotiations and skillful diplomacy by the the Ukrainian government have managed to free some hostages. Crimean Tatar leaders Akhtem Chiygoz and Ilmi Umerov were released on 25 October 2017, expelled from their home in Crimea (which is occupied by Russia), and travelled to free Ukraine. On 27 December 2017, 73 Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilian hostages of the Russian invader-occupiers of Donbas were released. The price Ukraine had to pay for their freedom was to release from lawful imprisonment 306 terrorists and criminals and hand them over to the Russian side (in fact, only 233 agreed to cross the battlefront – 73 preferred to face continued incarceration in Ukraine than go to Russia-occupied Donbas).
 
Offering to exchange prisoners that Ukraine holds for hostages that Russia holds seems to be the only means to bring the Putin regime to the negotiating table. Careful behind-the-scenes talks are underway to free two Ukrainian border guards, Ihor Dzyubak and Bogdan Martsonia, who were abducted by the Russians from Sumy region in Ukraine, in October 2017. The two men have been shuffled around within the Russian Federation by their abductors – the Ukrainian foreign ministry now believes they have been transferred from Moscow to Bryansk, which is 100 kilometres from the Ukrainian border. Russia violates the Vienna Convention, and has allowed the Ukrainian consul to visit Dzyubak and Martsonia only once, under restrictive conditions. A spokesperson for the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, Oleg Slobodyan, told Ukrayinska Pravda: “At the moment the negotiations process on the return to the motherland continues. I cannot tell more yet. We should be careful to not harm the process.” The Ukrainian government must be discreet, to protect the two men.
 
Russia abducted the two border guards to get something out of the Ukrainians. It’s up to the Ukrainian government to figure out what that is. It’s likely that the Russians want to do a prisoner swap, like they did when they kidnapped an Estonian officer, Eston Kohver, on 5 September 2014. The Russian kidnappers eventually agreed to exchange Kohver for Aleksei Dressen, a convicted traitor to Estonia. Russia will probably go through a sham trial, convict Ihor Dzyubak and Bogdan Martsonia of some offence it is impossible for them to have committed, and then get serious about a prisoner exchange.
 
The shoe is on the other foot in the case of Viktor Ageev. He is a Russian soldier who was captured by the Ukrainian armed forces 24 June 2017. He admitted to serving in the regular Russian army. Despite invading Ukraine, Russia has not declared war on Ukraine or even admitted to its participation in hostilities, therefore Ageev is not able to be treated as a prisoner of war. Ageev has been accused of terrorism and faces 8 to 15 years imprisonment. Viktor Chevguz is Ageev’s lawyer, and he claims that the Ukrainian government is seeking to exchange his client for a Ukrainian hostage being held by Russia. Chevguz told the UNIAN Information Agency: “It's the Russians who can't come up with something. Our government seeks to exchange him for Ukrainians held in Russian prisons. Negotiations are underway. The delay is on the Russian side now. When they agree, we will see a presidential decree at once, and Ageyev will be handed over.”
 
Russia is invading Ukraine. All of a piece with the invasion is Russia abducting Ukrainians from Crimea, Donbas, elsewhere in Ukraine (Sumy region, in the case of the Ihor Dzyubak and Bogdan Martsonia), Belarus (Homel, in the case of Pavel Hryb), and the Russian Federation (Moscow, in the case of Roman Sushchenko). But Kremlin propaganda pretends that Russia has nothing to do with the war in eastern Ukraine, and pretends that the cases of political prisoners is somehow separate. The Putin regime does not agree to exchange Oleh Sentsov, Oleksandr Kolchenko, Roman Sushchenko or Stanislav Klykh. The “Let My People Go” campaign is tracking 64 political prisoners of Russia who fall into this bizarre, Kremlin-concocted limbo: kidnapped because Russia invaded Ukraine, but not offered up for a prisoner exchange because Russia denies it is invading Ukraine.
 
It is possible for Ukrainians who are hostages of the Russian regime of state terror to be released. Akhtem Chiygoz and Ilmi Umerov are free and in Ukraine today because of discreet and wise negotiations by the Ukrainians with the Russian kidnappers. The two Ukrainian border guards, Ihor Dzyubak and Bogdan Martsonia, and the Ukrainian political prisoners Oleh Sentsov, Oleksandr Kolchenko, Roman Sushchenko, Stanislav Klykh, Pavel Hryb, and many others can be freed and must be freed.
 
Russia’s cruelty to Ukrainian hostages continues. It will only truly end when Crimea and Donbas are liberated, and Russia’s invasion of Europe in Ukraine is defeated. 
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