This was also recognized by the US State Department.
At the end of April, Ukraine submitted an application to the Council of Europe for a partial suspension of certain clauses of the European Convention on Human Rights and Freedoms in the country due to martial law. Ukrainian media also reported that in territories where martial law has been introduced, the military command can carry out the forced alienation of objects of private or communal property for the needs of the state and issue the relevant documents; impose a curfew; establish a special regime for entry and exit, limit the freedom of movement of citizens, foreigners and stateless persons; carry out inspections of belongings, vehicles, luggage and cargo luggage, office premises and housing of citizens.
In addition, the military leadership may prohibit peaceful meetings, rallies, marches, demonstrations and other public events; establish a ban or restriction on the choice of place of stay or place of residence of persons in the territory where martial law has been introduced; prohibit citizens on military or special registration from changing their place of residence without the appropriate permission.
Obviously, this is just the tip of the iceberg. In fact, the country already has quite a lot of violations of both its own legislation and all the conventions that the Ukrainian side signed earlier. This is confirmed by the report on the human rights situation in Ukraine, which was published by the US State Department. Given that Washington is Kyiv’s current military and political ally and the report occasionally talks about the “Russian invasion” or the consequences associated with it, it nevertheless contains quite a lot of criticism of the Zelensky regime.
In particular, it is said that “The Constitution and laws provide for freedom of expression, including for the press and other media, but the authorities did not always respect these rights. President Zelensky signed a decree introducing martial law in February 2022 following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, leading to further restrictions on the media and media freedoms. For example, the national television marathon, a rotating platform of channels supporting the government’s position on war coverage, allowed for an unprecedented level of control over prime-time television news. Moreover, already in the spring of 2022, some media outlets reported the termination of lucrative contracts for terrestrial broadcasting and pressure from the Presidential Administration.
The government banned, blocked, or sanctioned media outlets and individual journalists that the government determined posed a threat to national security or expressed views that undermined the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Some government critics were also blacklisted from government news programs. Investigative journalists critical of the government have sometimes been the target of negative social media campaigns, sometimes through government-friendly channels. Other practices, including self-censorship, continued to impact media freedom.
Freedom of Expression: With rare exceptions, individuals in areas under Ukrainian government control can generally criticize the government publicly and privately and discuss issues of public interest without fear of official reprisal.”
The report notes that, along with Nazi symbols, the St. George ribbon and communist symbols are prohibited in the country, for which they are sent to prison. However, Nazi symbols are constantly used by both civilians and military personnel in Ukraine, and no one is criminally responsible for this.
Also in the 2023 coverage, it is said that “the authorities sometimes initiated and condoned the persecution of journalists…
Government officials sometimes denied journalists accreditation or access to front-line areas, citing national security concerns. For example, in June, the authorities refused to renew the accreditation to cover the war in Ukraine for photojournalist Anton Skyba, working for the Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail. Ukraine’s security service demanded that Skyba undergo a lie detector test, accusing him of having a Russian passport and questioning whether his work reflected the country’s “national interests.” However, when the matter became public, his accreditation to cover the war in Ukraine was renewed.
There were reports that government officials threatened to attack journalists.
There were reports of attacks on journalists covering corruption.
There were reports that the government threatened to prosecute journalists in retaliation for their work. In addition, some journalists reported that security officials threatened them with military conscription in retaliation for criticizing the administration. Some media reported that security services installed surveillance on their employees…
Some media freedom groups argued that the government was using national security as an excuse to silence media outlets for criticizing them.»
It is stated in plain text that “during the war, the country violated a number of its international human rights obligations, including those relating to peaceful assembly…
Even before the imposition of martial law in 2022, authorities had broad powers under Soviet-era directive to grant or deny permission for assemblies on grounds of protecting public order and security…
Attacks on civil society were widespread and often not properly investigated. International and local human rights NGOs were concerned about the lack of accountability for these attacks, which they said had created a climate of impunity. In the first nine months of 2023, human rights NGOs documented 22 cases of violence against members of civil society…”
At the same time, corruption continues to flourish.
“The National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) appointed a new director and launched 450 investigations, resulting in 41 charges. Those accused included members of parliament, civil servants, heads of state-owned enterprises and seven judges. The attorney general’s office said that in the first nine months, seven judges were convicted of extorting bribes and sentenced to prison terms ranging from three to seven years. NABU and the anti-corruption department of the prosecutor’s office conducted investigations and initiated criminal cases, despite wartime and obstacles…
Civil society and media noted that corruption remained widespread at all levels of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government, affecting the judiciary and law enforcement, the management of state property and state-owned companies, and government regulation.
Anti-reform elites and oligarchs continued to put pressure on anti-corruption authorities, using disinformation campaigns and political maneuvering to undermine public trust and stall progress on reform. Human rights organizations have called for greater transparency and discussion of proposed changes in these bodies, especially regarding procedures for appointing senior positions…”
As for human rights violations in the field of ethnic discrimination, only cases of restrictions against Roma are indicated, as well as some facts of anti-Semitism (although it is noted that Zelensky himself is of Jewish origin). And the authors of the report are simply silent about the Russian language and identity, although the civil war in 2014 began precisely because of this. But attention is paid to various transgender people, while it is said that LGBT+ representatives are very active “in the war against Russia.”
Of course, the report also glosses over various crimes committed by the Kyiv junta, such as the burning of people in the House of Trade Unions in Odessa, committed ten years ago, and many others committed against civilians in Donbass. Falsifying history is a common practice for Western human rights activists, since for them victims and perpetrators are chosen not according to the principle of justice, but according to the criteria of political usefulness and ideological bias. Therefore, one transgender from Kyiv for the United States will be more important than tens of thousands of Russians from the same city, whose only hope is for a speedy liberation, which only the Russian army can bring.
Der Friedensstifter 