Following appeals sent by WSWS reporters to media outlets, trade unions, left parties, artists and public intellectuals, the Free Bogdan Syrotiuk campaign has won support in Greece—including signing the petition demanding Bogdan’s release.

Bogdan was arrested by Ukraine’s SBU intelligence service in April 2024. On August 10, 2026, a court in Pervomaisk sentenced him to 15 years in prison for “high treason under martial law.”

On September 21, an article covering the case was published on online news site To Kouti Tis Pandoras (Pandora’s Box), a widely read online publication with over 200,000 followers on X and over 330,000 followers on Facebook.

The piece summarised the scurrilous charges against Bogdan, noting that the “high treason” charge was based entirely on his views and collaboration with the World Socialist Web Site. It drew attention to Bogdan’s six articles that were used in evidence against him, including his speech at the International Committee of the Fourth International’s Online 2023 May Day Rally in which he called for the unity of Russian and Ukrainian workers. (A translation of the Kouti Tis Pandoras article is appended below).

To Kouti Tis Pandoras (Pandora’s Box) is published by Kostas Vaxevanis—a long-time investigative journalist and publisher of weekly newspaper Documento—who has been the victim of numerous criminal cases and death threats as a result of his reporting. In 2012 he was arrested on data privacy charges after he published the so-called “Lagarde List” of nearly 2,000 wealthy Greeks suspected of tax evasion following attempts by the Greek government to suppress the story.

Vaxevanis was acquitted of all charges later that year as well as in a retrial in 2013. He was a supporter of Alexis Tsipras, but broke with the former prime minister and SYRIZA (Coalition of the Radical Left) leader in 2024 after the latter backtracked on claims made during his premiership regarding alleged kickbacks received by multiple Greek politicians from the pharmaceutical giant Novartis between 2006 and 2015. In contrast, Vaxevanis has faced multiple criminal prosecutions over the years as a result of his reporting on the unfolding of the scandal in Greece. In July he was acquitted in a case brought by the judge investigating the Novartis affair.

Greek translations of the two main WSWS statements on Bogdan’s conviction were also published by the online left-wing publication kommon.gr in the first half of October following an appeal sent by WSWS reporters to Leonidas Vatikiotis, a prominent Greek economist and journalist who is a regular contributor to the website. See here and here.

Last year Vatikiotis published the book Ukraine, The Grand Plan: Even if it didn’t exist, it would have to be invented, examining the role played by NATO’s enlargement and political interference by Western powers in helping create the conditions for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

An appeal for Bogdan was also published by this reporter on Athens Indymedia—a long-running citizen journalism “counter-information” website where anyone can post. Athens Indymedia became a key source of news during the December 2008 protests and riots after Greek police killed teenager Alexandros Grigoropoulos. While the global Indymedia network as a whole has declined since the late 2000s, Athens Indymedia still receives an estimated tens of thousands of visits a month. According to web traffic tracker Similarweb, Greece accounted for around 45 percent of all of the network’s desktop traffic internationally in September. It regularly features appeals for political prisoners in Greece and internationally.

Bogdan’s case also received significant social media engagement after the To Kouti Tis Pandoras article was shared on the outlet’s X and Facebook accounts and was re-published by other independent outlets.

The two WSWS statements re-published by kommon.gr were also published on its Facebook account here and here and were reposted by other independent outlets. This was reposted by Red Line Agrinio, an organisation which covers daily events and news from Agrinio, Western Greece, Greece and internationally.

Comments by social media users on Bogdan’s case reflect the deep anti-war sentiment in the Greek working class and overwhelming hostility to the imperialist powers, which are funding NATO’s war against Russia.

One Facebook user wrote “what did you expect from the Nazi Zelenski [Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky] and the Nazi petty leaders of the EU who are supporting him. They have given him nearly €42 billion so far.”

Another spoke against the false democratic credentials afforded to Zelensky saying that his regime “is in other words the same sh*t as the opposing [Russian] camp.”

Comments also raised the mainstream media blackout of Bogdan’s persecution and jailing with one user sharing one of the WSWS statements stating that “no major western media outlet has covered the 15 year custodial sentence imposed on Ukrainian socialist Bogdan Syrotiuk.”

***

Translation of To Kouti Tis Pandoras piece (the original is here:

Ukraine: 27-Year-Old Marxist Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison for Anti-War Activism – His Criticism of the Government Deemed “High Treason”

The 27-year-old Ukrainian Marxist Bogdan Syrotiuk has been held in custody by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) for more than two years due to his anti-war activism and political views. He is currently appealing against the court’s decision.

As reported by Left Voice, the socialist—who has been detained since April 25, 2024—was sentenced last August by a Ukrainian court to 15 years in prison for calling on both Ukrainian and Russian workers to oppose the war in articles on his personal website [sic – the articles were published on the WSWS]. He condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion as well as denouncing “Washington’s proxy war,” while decrying the glorification of Nazi collaborators by Ukrainian government officials.

Bogdan had attempted to establish a socialist organization in Ukraine, the Young Guard of Bolshevik-Leninists (YGBL), in collaboration with the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS), a move that Kyiv interpreted as a hostile act.

The state deemed the socialist activist’s views to be “high treason” and cited his articles on the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS) as evidence. The conviction resulted in the seizure of his personal property, as well as the destruction of his work—the articles, pamphlets, and books he had published, as well as those in his possession.

The prosecution did not present any evidence showing that Bogdan was involved in espionage, sabotage, or collaboration with the Russian army. Instead, the case was based on his political writings and his communications with the WSWS. The court ultimately convicted him on the basis of six articles he had written, in which he condemned the war in Ukraine, criticized the Ukrainian government, and called for unity between Ukrainian and Russian workers.

One of the writings the court cited as evidence was a speech he gave on May Day 2023 titled “For the Unity of the Working Class of Russia and Ukraine!” Another article of his that was presented as evidence of guilt was the one titled “The Crimes of the Banderites Against the Ukrainian People,” in which Syrotiuk denounces the rehabilitation of the pro-Nazi Stepan Bandera and the fascist Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists in the collective memory of modern Ukraine, citing their collaboration with Nazi Germany and their violence against Ukrainians, Jews, Poles, and supporters of the Soviet Union.

***

The WSWS urges every reader to visit the campaign website FreeBogdan.org and act:

• Sign the petition, and add a statement of support in your own words.
• Write to the court, in your own language and in Ukrainian, using the letter-writing tool. If you have written before, send your letter again with the Ukrainian translation.
• Donate to the campaign.
• Post your support on social media, and share the campaign’s posts.
• Share the site widely with your contacts, in your workplace and in your neighbourhood.