The Ukrainian Government Keeps Sanctioning Its Domestic Critics.

The Proxy War Faught In The Name Of "Saving Democracy" Actually Paved The Way For An Authoritarian Power Grab.

Throughout the proxy war in Ukraine, the Biden administration and Western governments continuously claimed that the war needed to be continued to “save and protect democracy” in Ukraine.

In March of 2022, Joe Biden described the proxy war in Ukraine as a battle between “democracy and autocracy, liberty and repression, and a rules-based order and one governed by brute force”.

Biden continued this rhetoric throughout the proxy war, claiming in his final address that “Ukraine is still free” because of his proxy war.

War will always lead a government to naturally be more authoritarian, but it can also lead to governments using war powers for a totalitarian power grab.

This is certainly what happened in Ukraine, the war provoked and prolonged by the West in the name of “protecting democracy ”has allowed the Ukrainian government to do a full-scale power grab and crack down on its critics and political opponents.

In the most extreme move of authoritarianism yet, the Zelensky government in Ukraine has begun sanctioning prominent Ukrainian political figures for speaking critically of his government and the proxy war.

Silencing Critics.

Recently, the Ukrainian government has been using the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC) to place sanctions on any critics of Zelensky and the Ukrainian government.

In May of this year, the Zelensky government placed sanctions on the Ukrainian political scientist Konstantin Bondarenko, who the Ukrainian news outlet Strana called a “well-known Ukrainian political scientist”.

The sanctions were imposed for his book, “The Joker: The True Story Of Volodymyr Zelensky's rise to power” which Strana said “caused a great resonance” with Ukrainians.

Having read and written about the book in a previous article, it is easy to see why it resonated.

Zelensky’s government has claimed that his sanctioned critics have spread “Russian propaganda”, but Bondarenko’s book is not sympathetic to Russian actions in Ukraine whatsoever.

In the book, he called the Russian annexation of Crimea an “aggressive action” which “violated all norms of international law” and called the Russian invasion of Ukraine “full-scale aggression against Ukraine”.

However, along with exposing Russian aggression, Bondarenko also exposes Western imperialism in Ukraine, including the Maidan coup, the West’s repeated attempt to block the Minsk 2 accords, the Western blocking of the peace deal in Istanbul in April of 2022, and subsequent Western interference against an end to the war.

Along with this, Bondarenko exposes the current authoritarian nature of the Zelensky government, writing about its crackdown on dissidents, political opponents, and co-optation by Western governments.

Because of this, the Zelensky government branded Bondarenko a traitor for writing a nuanced, objective, and fact-filled book.

Along with Bondarenko, the Zelensky government also added one of his former advisors to the sanctions list .

Alongside Bondarenko, Oleksiy Arestovych, who previously served as Zelensky’s adviser to the Office of the President, is on the sanctions list.

The Kyiv Independent reported that Arestovych resigned from his position in January of 2023 and “has positioned himself as a critic of the Ukrainian government and has hinted at possible political ambitions”.

Aside from the fact that Arestovych could be a potential political rival to Zelensky, the sanctions are also likely retaliation for his support of the Istanbul peace deal in April of 2022 and for exposing corruption in the Ukrainian government.

In 2023, Arestovych revealed how taking the Istanbul peace deal- which the “collective west” stopped- could have ended the war and created a far better outcome for Ukraine, saying:

The Russian side still insisted on peace initiatives. And the Istanbul peace initiatives were very good, an intermediary document... Now 200-300 thousand would be alive, probably, and half of Ukraine would not be destroyed and mined... They agreed to political discussions on Crimea... We made concessions, but the amount of their concessions was greater. This will never happen again, it won’t, they will push more and more

Shortly before being placed on the sanctions list, Arestovych, ironically, exposed the Ukrainian government's abuse of the sanctions list.

Strana reported that before being added to the sanctions list, Arestovych said in a TV interview that “the sanctions of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine have turned into a tool for reprisals against political opponents and are used for extortion”.

He said that “money is demanded (from the Ukrainian government) in order not to be included in the sanctions lists” and compared the Ukrainian abuse of the sanctions list to “Putinism”.

Pictured Above: Oleksiy Arestovych

Strana reported that the Ukrainian blogger, Miroslav Oleshko, who “left for Europe,” was also added to the sanctions list because he “criticized the (Ukrainian) authorities, in particular, the mobilization process”.

Strana also reported that “the former head of the 112 Ukraine TV channel, Artyom Marchevsky, and political scientists Vadim Karasev and Denis Zharkikh also fell under the sanctions imposed by Volodymyr Zelensky.”

Most recently, the Zelensky government had added more of his critics to its sanctions list.

One of the most recent additions is Rostislav Shaposhnikov, a popular Ukrainian blogger who received political asylum and citizenship in the United States.

Shaposhnikov’s videos critical of the government have clearly resonated with many in Ukraine. His YouTube channel has 209 thousand subscribers, and his videos- where he speaks in Ukrainian- regularly receive hundreds of thousands of views.

Ivan Katchanovski, a Ukrainian-Canadian professor of political science at the University of Ottawa, said the “Sanctions (on Shaposhnikov) are for his videos critical of Zelensky & are aimed at making YouTube block their access in Ukraine, similarly to sanctions against other Ukrainian bloggers & journalists in the West.”

Zelensky even sanctioned Ihor Mosiychuk, a former far-right Ukrainian politician with ties to the neo-nazi Azov Battalion.

However, Mosiychuk was not sanctioned for his far-right views but because “like a few prominent Ukrainian commentators, Mosiychuk has lately adopted a pro-peace position which puts him at odds with the party line,” as journalist Leonid Ragozin reported.

Marta Havryshko, a Ukrainian academic living in the United States, said :

Zelensky continues to restrict the rights of Ukrainian citizens who sharply criticize him.

These sanctions have been imposed without a court verdict—i.e., in direct violation of Ukrainian law and the Constitution. They are justified by ‘war necessity’ and ‘national interests.’

But equating criticism of the authorities with treason is a hallmark of dictatorship. But in the case of Ukraine, sponsored and endorsed by Western ‘democracies’ and ‘the civilized world.’

She said that “Zelensky's extrajudicial sanctions against Ukrainian citizens are not about Ukraine’s survival” but “are about the survival of a corrupt regime afraid of losing power.”

A Major Western Lie

To justify the continuation of the Ukraine proxy war, Western governments and their stooges in mainstream media have conspired to hide the growing authoritarian nature of the Ukrainian government.

However, recently it has gotten so bad that even the Economist, one of the most supportive publications of the Ukraine war, has had to acknowledge it.

In an article titled “Power is being monopolized in Ukraine,” the magazine writes that Volodymyr Zelensk has an “increasing monopoly of power, which has sometimes undermined the state’s effectiveness and even the war effort itself.”

Yulia Mostovaya the editor of the Ukrainian news outlet ZN.UA, said to the Economist, “While the Western media and European leaders have lionised Zelensky and turned him into a celebrity, we feel trapped”. This quote was shared approvingly to social media by Zelensky’s former press secretary, Iuliia Mendel.

The magazine also reported that Petro Poroshenko, the former Western-backed president of Ukraine and political rival of Zelensky, has faced lawfare campaigns from the government, writing:

In February Petro Poroshenko, who leads the largest opposition party, was penalised for unspecified ‘threats to national security’. His assets have been frozen. He is also being charged with ‘treason’ in a legal case which looks to critics like lawfare. The sanctions in effect bar him from contesting any election. However many Ukrainians may dislike Mr Poroshenko, many see this as a dangerous precedent. ‘If Poroshenko can be barred from an electoral process without any court decision, so can anyone else,’ says Olexiy Honcharenko, a member of Ukraine’s parliament, the Rada.

It also reported that “Civil-society activists are being harassed” in Ukraine and that “Vitaly Shabunin, an anti-corruption crusader, who had enlisted in the first days of the war while also exposing graft in Ukraine’s defence ministry, has long been targeted” by the Ukrainian government.

Konstantin Bondarenko-in his book that landed him on the sanctions list- exposed the full extent of Ukraine’s autocratic direction.

He noted that the Ukrainian parliamentarian Oleksandr Dubinsky “testified in court that between February and November 2022, a special SBU (Security Service of Ukraine) concentration camp existed, through which more than 300 people passed” and that “the existence of a torture chamber in the SBU building during the early months of the war was confirmed by several individuals who had been in the hands of particularly zealous torturers, among whom were three members of parliament, two political experts, and one journalist”.

Bondarenko also wrote that “the authorities decided to subject the information space to a thorough cleaning and establish harsh censorship on television” and that “severe censorship was introduced in the media” including the establishment of a “NSDC (National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine) branch called the Center for Countering Disinformation” which was “responsible for interpreting ‘correct’ and ‘incorrect’ interpretations of events”.

He wrote that “Based on complaints from the Center, the Security Service could initiate criminal cases against unwanted journalists, bloggers, or political analysts, or raise the issue of banning certain publications” and that “anything contradicting the official position was labeled as ‘Kremlin narratives’”.

He noted that the Zelensky government put language restrictions for Russian speakers, writing “New language policies excluded millions of Russian-speaking citizens from the law: Russian schools were closed, monuments to Russian writers began to be dismantled, streets and squares, as well as towns, were renamed, and the Russian language was systematically eradicated—despite Article 10 of the Ukrainian Constitution, which guarantees free advancement of the Russian language.”

He wrote that “Several journalists and political experts were forced to emigrate—every day, their numbers grew”, noting that a “new wave of Ukrainian emigration began, whereby those who emigrated mainly comprised the middle class, business representatives, and intellectuals, who were for the most part patriotic but unable to tolerate the outright kakistocracy, incompetent, and corrupt government in their native country”.

He went on to write that “Under the banner of patriotic slogans, the authorities were implementing blatantly comprador schemes in Ukraine, sending their own citizens ‘to the slaughter’ while silencing anyone who dared to speak out”.

By 2023, Bondarenko wrote “it became clear that the Zelensky who came to power amid expectations of greater freedom and was seen as something positive and fresh in the stale system of Ukrainian political life had turned into a morose dictator and despot, a fanatic ready to imprison all dissenters and suspects, while also sending all Ukrainian citizens to the frontlines”.

All while this was happening, the West initiated a whitewashing campaign to portray Zelensky and the Ukrainian government as heroic and democratic.

Bondarenko revealed that after the start of the Ukraine war “contracts were signed with more than 60 Western lobbying and PR agencies, whose tasks included arranging pompous publications in leading Western media, blocking negative articles, and organizing meetings and speeches” for Zelensky.

Bondarenko wrote that Western PR firms attempted to portray Zelensky as “a figure somewhere between a ‘new Churchill’ and a ‘new Che Guevara.’”

Some of the media whitewashing of Zelensky and the Ukrainian government in 2022 and 2023, listed by Bondarenko, were

-Time magazine named Zelensky ‘Person of the Year.’

-Bookstores were filled with books about Zelensky in every language under the sun. Comics appeared with Zelensky as the main character.

-Zelensky was portrayed as a positive hero fighting a ‘refined evil’—Putin. Hollywood was considering making a film about Zelensky.

-Small figurines of Zelensky were sold in souvenir shops in Europe and the U.S., and they sold out very quickly.

-Zelensky became an element of pop culture.

-Zelensky appeared at the 64th annual Grammy Awards.

-He spoke at the opening of the Cannes Film Festival in May 2022.

-He spoke at the opening of the Berlin Film Festival in February 2022.

-Sean Penn came to Ukraine and gave his Oscar statuette to Zelensky.

Pictured Above: Zelensky speaking at the Grammy Awards in 2022.

Bondarenko compared this to the United States’ long history of whitewashing dictators that are geopolitically beneficial to U.S. interests, writing:

The West discreetly closed its eyes to the lawlessness going on in Ukraine. There is a popular apocryphal story among historians about a remark Franklin Roosevelt allegedly made to Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza: ‘He may be a son-of-a-bitch, but he’s our son-of-a-bitch.’ Over the past 80 years, American policy principles have not changed, and Biden could proudly repeat the words of his distant predecessor and party colleague, this time in reference to Ukraine and its president.

Zelensky's sanctioning of political opponents will certainly not be covered in mainstream Western press, but the story goes to show that by prolonging a war in the name of “saving democracy” in Ukraine, the West actually helped deeply damage it.

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