Ursula von der Leyen has announced that Ukraine has managed 90 per cent of the reforms it needs to carry out to join the EU, L’Antidiplomatico reports.
However, Ukraine still violates the right to peaceful assembly, restricts the activities of political parties, and harasses journalists and members of the opposition.
A summit in Brussels on 14-15 December will discuss Ukraine’s future in the European Union. The European Commission first gave the go-ahead for Ukraine to start accession talks with the EU on 8 November 2023. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced that Kyiv had implemented 90 per cent of the commission’s recommendations for reforms needed for EU accession. However, how true is this?
Kyiv will have to overcome a serious obstacle in the form of Hungary, which intends to veto it because it fears the economic consequences of Ukraine’s accession to the EU. Budapest favours a strategic partnership with Kyiv. However, it is not only about meeting the economic requirements for accession, but also about the very fundamental principles of the democratic system, the rights and freedoms that the European Union stands for. At least in words, according to L’Antidiplomatico.
The EC report said that Ukraine “continues to make progress towards democratic reforms and the rule of law”. Overall, “the legal framework appears satisfactory for the organisation of democratic elections”, despite the fact that no elections were held during the reporting period. And they will not be held because President Zelensky cancelled them for the duration of martial law. Elections can be considered democratic if certain fundamental freedoms are guaranteed in the country: freedom of assembly, freedom of association and freedom of expression. The existence of these freedoms in Ukraine is seriously threatened, if not questioned, and this began long before the war started in 2022.
There is no specific law on rallies and demonstrations in Ukraine. Restrictions on freedom of demonstration have been imposed by the martial law in force in Ukraine since 24 February 2022.
However, according to an anonymous complaint by a human rights defender, gatherings of extreme right-wing political groups and demonstrations organised by state officials are allowed. Suffice it to recall the “Viking rituals” of the Azov battalion in honour of the “all-conquering Sun God” (Sol Invictus) or celebrations in honour of Stepan Bandera. One can say that this is folklore, albeit with a Nazi tinge. But it is far from everything.
In some cases and under certain circumstances, the guards allowed political protests, but only if they were in favour of the government. For example, in October-November 2023, there were demonstrations demanding that all budget funds be spent on armaments rather than construction. As a result, the Verkhovna Rada transferred local budget revenues to the state budget, i.e. under the control of the government.
In recent weeks, military family members have called for a law limiting mobilisation to 18 months, probably at the insistence of some army units.
Anti-war, left-wing and anti-fascist demonstrations were banned long before 24 February 2022. The activist recalls that since 2014, it was virtually impossible to hold a protest or sit-in even before martial law. Right-wing extremists with the inaction or active support of the police then attacked protesters, L’Antidiplomatico reports.
Brothers Mikhail and Aleksandr Kononovich, who were arrested for organising an anti-war demonstration in February 2022, are an example for this. Over the years of their political activity, Nazi activists repeatedly attacked them.
Freedom of peaceful assembly in Ukraine is thus systematically violated despite a favourable legislative framework.
Ukrainian legislation allows the authorities to outlaw any opposition party. On 14 May 2022, President Zelensky signed a law simplifying the procedure for banning political associations. This law will be in force always, not only during martial law.
As a result, already in the summer of 2022, 14 parties, all left-wing and some opposition parties, were banned in Ukraine. Long before that, in 2015, Kyiv passed a law criminalising up to five years’ imprisonment for the use of communist symbols and for “communist propaganda”. For example, last spring a resident of the Nikopol district was charged for wearing a T-shirt depicting the coat of arms of the Soviet Union with a sickle and hammer.
The Communist Party of Ukraine (CPU) was finally banned on 7 July 2022 with the confiscation of property and assets from both the organisation and its leaders. Last August, Communist leader Petro Symonenko was investigated in absentia for participating in two international political events: the Communist Party Summit in Havana in 2022 and the Minsk Anti-Fascist Forum in 2023, according to L’Antidiplomatico.
Parliamentarians in the Verkhovna Rada are often subjected to political persecution. One high-profile case was the arrest of Nestor Shufrych, an opposition member and head of the committee, one of those most critical of Zelensky’s policies. He was charged by the Internal Security Service, under the authority of the Ukrainian president, with treason and the creation of a Moscow-backed SBU spy network.
Thus, legislation and political practice demonstrate a complete violation of freedom of assembly in Ukraine.
Since 2014, Ukraine has passed several laws that allow the president to impose “sanctions” on media outlets, both foreign and Ukrainian, by decree. These sanctions effectively mean the liquidation of the media.
Indeed, a large number of internet pages with millions of users have been blocked. On 2 February 2021, Zelensky signed a decree on “sanctions” against TV channels presenting views different from the Kyiv point of view.
The Law on Mass Media, signed by Zelensky on 29 December 2022, has raised concerns among Ukrainian, European and international journalist associations as it threatens pluralism and freedom of information, as well as the safety of journalists.
Just as restrictions on political freedoms have led to the persecution and arrest of opposition members, restrictions on the collection and dissemination of information have affected the freedom and safety of journalists, L’Antidiplomatico reports.
On 16 April 2015, opposition writer and journalist Oles Buzina was shot dead near his home in Kyiv by members of a neo-Nazi formation. On 8 February 2015, the SBU arrested journalist Ruslan Kotsaba for “high treason” and “obstructing the activities of the armed forces of Ukraine”.
His crime was that he had published a video in which he called the conflict in Donbas “fratricidal” and called to refuse mobilisation into the army. On 11 February 2015, Amnesty International, an international human rights organisation, named Kotsaba a prisoner of conscience.
In 2017, two bloggers, Dmytro Vasilets and Yevhen Timonin, were sentenced to nine years on charges of “facilitating terrorist activity” for attempting to create a YouTube channel.
On 1 August 2017, the Security Service of Ukraine arrested Vasyl Muravitsky, a left-wing journalist from the city of Zhytomyr, and charged him with “high treason”. The subject of the charge was the content of his articles. On 20 December 2017, Amnesty International and several other human rights organisations named Muravitsky a prisoner of conscience. On 17 May 2022, Finland granted him political refugee status.
On 5 May 2018, journalist Kiryl Vyshinsky was arrested and imprisoned without trial. The SBU accused him, as well as many other Ukrainian journalists, of “high treason”. The subject of the charge was “production of information materials”, i.e. his own articles.
In March 2022, a real witch hunt against intellectuals, writers and journalists unfolded. Ukrainian journalist Oleg Yasinsky, in an article published by the international news agency Pressenza, recalls some of the victims of the arrests, including Yuri Tkachev and the 70-year-old poet Jan Taksyur, who was seriously ill with cancer. More than a year later, Taksyur was released in a prisoner exchange with Moscow: the Ukrainian military in exchange for civilians unwanted by Kyiv, according to L’Antidiplomatico.
Not only journalists, but also ordinary citizens can be arrested for the opinions they express on social media. The case of a pensioner arrested for a status on the Russian social network Odnoklassniki was covered by the BBC Ukrainian news service.
In conclusion, neither the legal framework for the realisation of freedom of association and opinion, nor violations of basic civil liberties (to peaceful assembly and association, freedom of speech) make it possible to hold free and democratic elections in Ukraine even in peacetime. How would the EU be affected by the accession of a country like “Maidan” Ukraine, where elections are cancelled, political opponents, independent journalists and anyone who dares to think critically are persecuted?
