A drone struck the Mykolaiv pre-trial detention center where Ukrainian socialist and anti-war activist Bogdan Syrotiuk is being held during the night of 9–10 September.
The World Socialist Web Site is relieved to report that Bogdan is unharmed. According to the information available, none of the other prisoners were injured either.
Ukrainian local media reported that the detention center was hit by a Shahed-type drone. Vasyl Donets, the representative of the Ukrainian parliament’s Commissioner for Human Rights in the Kherson and Mykolaiv regions, told a meeting of the Mykolaiv Regional Council on 10 September that the incident had created serious questions concerning the evacuation and further accommodation of those held in the facility.
The reports attribute the drone to Russian forces. However, the WSWS has not independently established the origin of the drone or whether the detention center itself was deliberately targeted.
The incident nevertheless underscores the extremely dangerous conditions in which Bogdan remains imprisoned.
Bogdan has been held for more than two years and was sentenced on 10 August to 15 years in prison on charges of “high treason under martial law.” His conviction rests on political articles, interviews, translations and his editorial collaboration with the World Socialist Web Site, not on any proven act of espionage, sabotage or collaboration with Russian military or intelligence agencies.
His defence lawyers have now filed two appeals against the verdict.
Bogdan should never have been imprisoned. The WSWS is deeply relieved that he and the other detainees escaped injury in this incident, but it is another warning of the dangers to which he is exposed every day that he remains behind bars in the midst of an escalating war.
The campaign for his freedom must therefore be intensified.
We call on workers, young people and defenders of democratic rights internationally to demand the immediate overturning of the verdict and Bogdan’s release, send protest letters to the Ukrainian courts, circulate the international petition at freebogdan.org, publicize his case and contribute to the international campaign for his freedom.