In Berlin, the case is a central issue in the SGP\u2019s campaign for the Berlin state elections. The party links the fight for Bogdan\u2019s release to building a socialist movement against the German government\u2019s war policy.<\/p>\n
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SGP members lead the campaign for Bogdan\u2019s freedom<\/p>\n
We publish below statements from workers and students expressing solidarity with Bogdan.<\/p>\n
Gabriel<\/strong>, a young nurse from Bielefeld, explained: \u201cBogdan Syrotiuk called fascists and Nazis by their true names. Every article he wrote was politically and historically accurate. Bogdan\u2019s conviction shows that there are no democratic processes in Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n Gabriel said Syrotiuk was sentenced to 15 years in prison \u201cjust because he is against the war and a socialist.\u201d<\/p>\n Syrotiuk was arrested more than two years ago, on 25 April 2024. A few weeks later, the WSWS was banned in Ukraine. \u201cThat\u2019s terrifying. Everyone should have access to this website,\u201d Gabriel said.<\/p>\n Aaron<\/strong>, a student at the Free University of Berlin and a member of the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE), is supporting the campaign in Berlin. In his view, the verdict exposes the true nature of the Zelensky regime: \u201cWhen martial law was imposed in Ukraine, opposition parties and media were banned, all criticism of the war was criminalised and critics like Bogdan were jailed as \u2018national traitors.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n First campaign ad of the Socialist Equality Party (SGP) for the 2026 Berlin elections<\/p>\n Aaron sees the case as an expression of a broader development: \u201cThis war strips away the mask of the nation-states of capitalism. Phrases about democracy or humanism become ever more self-contradictory the more that upholding them stands in the way of capital\u2019s profit interests.\u201d<\/p>\n NATO\u2019s eastward expansion, he said, was not a \u201cdemocratisation of former Soviet states\u201d but an extension of America\u2019s sphere of influence. Germany was also using the war \u201cto rise to become Europe\u2019s leading military power.\u201d To this end, the population was being attacked on every front through sanctions against critical journalists, cuts to social benefits and Bundeswehr (German armed forces) propaganda in schools.<\/p>\n \u201cBogdan\u2019s imprisonment and conviction remind me of the legal cases against Julian Assange or Carl von Ossietzky,\u201d said Michael<\/strong>, a 65-year-old environmental engineer from Berlin. They too, he said, exposed the crimes and intrigues of the ruling system to the public. \u201cIn Bogdan\u2019s case, there is the additional factor that he exposed the fascist character of the Ukrainian government and recalled the historical ties between the Ukrainian and Russian populations in the Soviet era.\u201d<\/p>\n Michael continued: \u201cThe supposed defence of \u2018Ukrainian democracy\u2019 is nothing more than cheap demagogy that no longer works on large parts of the population. That\u2019s why the recent incidents at Leipzig airport<\/a> serve to manufacture a pro-war mood.\u201d The so-called hybrid war, he said, represented a further escalation of the war.<\/p>\n Klaus<\/strong>, a retired lecturer at a Berlin adult education centre (Volkshochschule), called the verdict \u201can act of state terror.\u201d Germany and NATO were using Ukraine as a \u201cbattering ram against Russia,\u201d he said. \u201cGerman business wants to exploit Russian raw materials and workers without the interference of a relatively strong state.\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cBogdan\u2019s achievement is to point out that Ukrainian and Russian workers are being made to give their lives for their oligarchs. But they can end the war if they send the billionaires packing. That\u2019s why, for me, signing the\u00a0petition<\/a>\u00a0for Bogdan is only the beginning. We too have to convince working people that they can tie the hands of Germany\u2019s warmongers by using their own power against them.\u201d<\/p>\n Michael<\/strong>, a Slavic studies student at Humboldt University in Berlin, supports Bogdan\u2019s release because he \u201cspeaks out for peace and for uniting the working class in both Russia and Ukraine against the regimes of Zelensky and Putin.\u201d The Ukrainian regime, Michael said, \u201cobscures the truth about the crimes of the fascists, the followers of Bandera and the OUN\/UPA (the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army). Bogdan fights hard against this falsification of history, which is why the Ukrainian regime is persecuting him too.\u201d<\/p>\n Kim<\/strong>, a metalworker living in Norway, emphasised the international dimension: \u201cNo government has the right to censor and persecute; no court has the right to punish Bogdan or anyone else for their political convictions and for voicing opposition. These are inalienable democratic and human rights.\u201d<\/p>\n Andreas<\/strong>, a works council member at the auto parts supplier ZF, pointed out that Bogdan Syrotiuk is not an isolated case: \u201cThe state\u2019s actions against him are typical of what happens when people get \u2018too active\u2019 against the wars and interests that the population is being used for. Examples can be found all over the world, in practically every country, including Germany.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe will become cannon fodder\u201d<\/p>\n The most vivid account of the situation in his home country comes from Ilja<\/strong>, a 22-year-old Ukrainian who fled to Berlin only a few days ago. Kiev, he said, is currently being \u201cvery heavily bombed,\u201d with \u201cshopping areas, ordinary markets, residential districts and civilian infrastructure\u201d being destroyed. \u201cIt\u2019s not true that only military facilities are being hit.\u201d<\/p>\n Questions about this article? Ask Socialism AI<\/p>\n Ilja described what mobilisation means for young men in Ukraine: \u201cPeople are simply abducted off the streets. They stop them, beat them and force them into vans for no reason at all.\u201d Not even a disability protects them, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are forced to flee our own country, the country where we grew up, where we lived and developed and where we wanted to build our future. We are simply forced to flee because we understand that in two years, we will be nothing but cannon fodder on the battlefield. Everyone gets sent to the front. If you don\u2019t have connections or know anyone in the military apparatus, they can send you anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n The true numbers of dead and wounded were being concealed, he said: \u201cEvery second person is walking around with prosthetics by now. Some have lost their arms, some their legs. They tell at most 20 percent of the truth. So when they report, for example, that 15 or 20 people were killed overnight, that information is false.\u201d<\/p>\n Ilja buried a classmate who had volunteered. His classmate was 19 years old. \u201cNow all our friends are lying in the cemetery.\u201d Of those his age who volunteered, he said, \u201calmost all of them have died. Really, only a few people are left, and even they were very badly wounded.\u201d Anyone who recovers even somewhat is conscripted again and sent back to the front.<\/p>\n At the aluminum plant where Ilja worked until his departure, half the workforce quit within three months because workers were receiving \u201cvery little money\u201d and their wages were constantly paid late. Ukraine\u2019s average monthly wage of around \u20ac500 is not enough to live on.<\/p>\n Ilja rejected the entire war on principle: \u201cI believe this war should never have happened. It feels as if everything was deliberately staged to, so to speak, tear the Slavic peoples apart.\u201d<\/p>\n He concluded: \u201cWe are completely against the Zelensky regime and against the Putin regime. We are for peace. We are for peace across the whole world. We are young people. We want to develop, learn the language and work. War is not our profession.\u201d<\/p>\n More and more young people in Ukraine think as Ilja does. Bogdan has given this resistance a conscious political orientation and a socialist programme, which is why he has become a target of the Ukrainian government.<\/p>\n In his statement, Gabriel therefore appealed: \u201cAs the working class, we have to stand together and fight for Bogdan\u2019s release. We cannot stand by and watch a man who opposes war and has fought for so much be tortured and, in the worst case, die. We have to fight against this, and every voice counts.\u201d<\/p>\n Join us on Sunday, 6 September, at 3pm at the Brandenburg Gate: \u201cStop the Ukraine war! Freedom for Bogdan Syrotiuk!\u201d Sign the\u00a0<\/strong>petition<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0for his release. Support the campaign and the trial costs with a generous\u00a0<\/strong>donation<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n Donate to the campaign to free Bogdan Syrotiuk!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Sunday, 6 September, at 3 p.m., the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party, SGP) will hold a rally…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1187111,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5310],"tags":[28385,62632,2000,299,13862,147033,1824,24861,2821,332,657,771],"class_list":["post-1187110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-germany","tag-authoritarian","tag-democratic-rights","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-fascism","tag-fascist","tag-germany","tag-militarism","tag-nato","tag-russia","tag-ukraine","tag-war"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117216158812994245","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1187110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1187110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1187110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1187111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1187110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1187110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1187110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1788576502_883_00320551-90b5-4662-8c01-4280f38c1388.png\"\/)
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