Take action: Ukraine anti-fascist activist detained

The following statement was issued by the International Action Center on Sept. 13.

On the night of Sept. 12, Vladislav Wojciechowski, an activist with the leftist Union Borotba (Struggle), was detained in Odessa, Ukraine. According to Borotba, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) is ready to charge Wojciechowski with “terrorism.” Explosives were planted by the authorities during the search of the apartment where he lived.

Neo-Nazi “self-defense” paramilitaries also participated in his arrest. Wojciechowski was beaten, and it is possible that a confession was forced out of him under torture. Currently, he is in SBU custody in Odessa.

Wojciechowski was at the Odessa House of Trade Unions on May 2. He survived the massacre of 48 anti-fascists there, but suffered a traumatic brain injury at the hands of neo-Nazi militants.

Wojciechowski’s arrest shows that the U.S.-backed Petro Poroshenko regime is not really interested in ending the civil war in Ukraine, but instead continues to persecute its political opponents.

The International Action Center joins in demanding the immediate release of political prisoner Vladislav Wojciechowski!

Please contact the nearest Ukrainian embassy or consulate and the White House in Washington, D.C., to demand Wojciechowski’s immediate release. Let them know you hold Ukrainian President Peter Poroshenko and U.S. President Barack Obama responsible for his safety.

In the U.S., contact:

• Igor Sybiga, Chief of the Consulate General of Ukraine in New York, 240 E. 49th St., New York, NY 10017; phone: 212-371-6965; fax: 212-371-5547; email: gc_usn@mfa.gov.ua; website: ny.mfa.gov.ua.

• White House switchboard: 202-456-1414; comment line: 202-456-1111; submit messages of protest to President Obama online at tinyurl.com/cgup8c9.