Fascist Ukrainian court sentences Bogdan Syrotiuk, socialist opponent of war, to 15 years in prison
The sentencing of Bogdan Syrotiuk is aimed at terrorizing opposition to the NATO-backed war against Russia.
WSWS Editorial Board•
Demand the freedom of Bogdan Syrotiuk, sentenced to 15 years in prison for opposing the war in Ukraine!
On August 10, 2026, a Ukrainian court sentenced Bogdan Syrotiuk, a 27-year-old Trotskyist and opponent of the US-NATO war against Russia, to 15 years in prison on charges of “high treason” under martial law. The court also ordered the confiscation of his property and the destruction of the program, brochures and leaflets of his organization, the Young Guard of Bolshevik-Leninists (YGBL).
On August 10, 2026, a Ukrainian court sentenced Bogdan Syrotiuk, a 27-year-old Trotskyist and opponent of the US-NATO war against Russia, to 15 years in prison on charges of “high treason” under martial law. The court also ordered the confiscation of his property and the destruction of the program, brochures and leaflets of his organization, the Young Guard of Bolshevik-Leninists (YGBL).
Bogdan committed no crime. The sole evidence presented against him consisted of six articles published on the World Socialist Web Site and his communications with the editors who published them. Writing for a socialist publication has been declared treason.
When Bogdan was arrested by the SBU on April 25, 2024, the state claimed he was an agent of the Russian government. In more than two years, no evidence of any kind was produced to support that allegation. The articles cited in the verdict themselves make explicit Bogdan’s opposition to the Russian invasion and the Putin regime. A 65-page report by Yuri Irkhin, one of Ukraine’s leading criminologists, found in Bogdan’s writings no “statements, phrases, sentences, or word combinations that have signs of propaganda aimed at supporting the armed aggression of the Russian Federation.” The court never answered it.
The verdict will be appealed. Under Ukrainian law, the appeal must be filed within 30 days. The European Court of Human Rights accepted Bogdan’s case in the spring of 2025.
Bogdan’s life is in danger. His health was poor at the time of his arrest. He was denied urgently needed medical treatment for over two years, and treatment has begun only recently. In a penitentiary system whose overcrowding, denial of medical care and rising deaths in custody have been documented by the United Nations and the Council of Europe, a 15-year sentence is the equivalent of a death sentence.
We demand that the verdict against Bogdan Syrotiuk be overturned and that he be released immediately!
Send statements demanding the overturning of the verdict and Bogdan’s immediate release to the Pervomaisk City District Court at inbox@pm.mk.court.gov.ua, with copies to the World Socialist Web Site at freebogdan@wsws.org.
On August 10, Bogdan Syrotiuk, a 27-year-old Ukrainian socialist and opponent of the US-NATO war against Russia, was sentenced to 15 years in prison. The verdict, handed down by a district court in the Nikolaev region, also orders the confiscation of his property and electronic devices and the destruction of the socialist books, leaflets and programmatic documents taken from him.
This report, delivered to the Eighth Congress of the Socialist Equality Party (US), introduced a resolution to Free Bogdan Syrotiuk. It explains the political foundations of the defense campaign and the political development of Bogdan Syrotiuk and the organization he founded, the Young Guard of Bolshevik Leninists.
On Thursday, June 13, this letter from the Socialist Equality Party and the International Editorial Board of the World Socialist Web Site was delivered to Oksana Markarova, the Ambassador of Ukraine, in Washington, D.C.
The fraudulent charge of treason brought against Syrotiuk is aimed at intimidating and suppressing growing opposition among Ukrainian workers and youth to the imperialist-backed Zelensky regime and the escalating war against Russia.
On Thursday, April 25, Bogdan Syrotiuk—a socialist opponent of the right-wing Zelensky regime and the NATO-instigated Ukraine-Russia war—was arrested by the Security Service of Ukraine, the SBU, in his hometown of Pervomaisk in southern Ukraine.
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Voices of support
Free Bogdan Syrotiuk, Thank you David North for Exposing Zelensky for what he is.
Roger Waters, Pink Floyd
I, Professor Dr. Mario Kessler, historian in Berlin, hereby strongly protest the Pervomaisk court’s conviction of Mr. Bogdan Syrotiuk....Must I remind you that Leon Trotsky, as People’s Commissar for Defense, ensured the formation of the Red Army, which was able to curb the mass murder of Ukrainian Jews during the civil war? Must I also remind you that in 1939, Trotsky vehemently condemned the partition of Western Ukraine between Germany and the Soviet Union and advocated for a Ukraine independent of the Soviet Union—including Stalin’s Soviet Union?How does this fit with the accusation that Mr. Syrotiuk, a self-proclaimed socialist and Trotskyist, is playing along with Putin’s game?
Mario Kessler, Historian, Germany
It is clear that he has been arrested because the ruling Ukraine regime is engaged in suppressing his leftist and anti-war voice and oppressing the anti-war voices of workers and youths.Accordingly, our organisation urges Ukrainian authorities to immediately release Bogdan Syrotiuk and that they respect his democratic right to advocate for his anti-war views.
Siritunga Jayasuriya,General Secretary of the United Socialist Party, Sri Lanka
Stop the War Coalition calls for the immediate release of 27-year-old Bogdan Syrotiuk, the Ukrainian anti-war activist sentenced to 15 years imprisonment on charges of “high treason” under martial law for opposing NATO and for calling for solidarity with Ukrainian and Russian workers. The Ukrainian courts accuse Syrotiuk of collaborating with a “foreign organization” to spread “pro-Russian disinformation”. We demand the British government and PM Andy Burnham, who now enjoys a close relationship with the Ukrainian regime and its president Volodymyr Zelensky, calls for Bogdan’s release.
Stop the War Coalition, UK
I strongly condemn this act of the Ukraine government. I demand the Ukraine government release our comrade unconditionally. Bogdan Syrotiuk did not do or say anything wrong. What he did was fight for the sake of the international working class. He fought and is fighting for workers’ power (soviets). We have to fight against such frame ups to protect the workers from injury. This is all the more necessary, as Bogdan’s health is not in good condition. And I appeal again for the release of our comrade Bogdan Syrotiuk.
Amarjeet, Jailed Maruti Suzuki worker, India
The Permanent Revolution Collective (CoReP) supports the demand for the immediate release of comrade Bogdan Syrotiuk, who has been arrested by the Ukrainian authorities for allegedly “supporting Russian interests” and faces a prison sentence of up to 15 years if convicted. In reality, the Ukrainian government and its secret service are persecuting Syrotiuk because he calls himself a Trotskyist and cooperates with the World Socialist Website (WSWS). Even though we have big differences with the Ukraine position of this current ...we defend Bogdan against the repression of the bourgeois state of Ukraine, as we defend all proletarian class war prisoners.
Permanent Revolution Collective in Austria, Argentina, France, Spain and Turkey
Free him immediately!! Warmongers should be questioned. World leaders should sit together and argue, not promote wars. Less spending on arms and wars. Spend on education, peace, health care, social issues. Bogdan wants this as well as all ordinary working people.
Vera from Hungary
Human rights activists of the Foundation to Combat Repression strongly condemn the wrongful arrest of Bogdan Syrotiuk. According to the unanimous opinion of the Foundation’s experts, Bogdan’s case has all the signs of a politically motivated persecution. In this regard, the human rights defenders of the Foundation for Combating Repression join the petition and call on the Ukrainian authorities to immediately release the young man from custody and drop all charges against him.
Foundation to Combat Repression, Russia
We, Youth for Change, the youth organisation of the Frontline Socialist Party in Sri Lanka, condemn the above-mentioned repressive actions of the Zelensky regime and demand the immediate release of our brother Bogdan Syrotiuk, who is facing hateful false charges!Moreover, we call upon youth around the world, revolutionary and progressive youth movements, and leftist parties to unite in the establishment of a revolutionary struggle and movement against the imperialist capitalist forces that are the architects of the Ukraine-Russia war!
International Committee of the Youth for Change, Sri Lanka
Leftists who claim the mantle of internationalism must speak out against the reactionary nationalism that the Russian and Ukrainian regimes are using to crack down on dissent. Ukrainian socialist Bogdan Syrotiuk has been imprisoned for a year now for criticizing the proxy-war in Ukraine. He must be released immediately!.
Left Voice, US
While we do not share the views of the World Socialist Web Site, we express solidarity with the activist group [YGBL]. Let’s remember that repression in one country feeds repression in another and vice versa.
Rabkor.Ru, Russia
As the Socialist Party of Turkey, we deem the harsh prison sentence imposed on Bogdan Syrotiuk unacceptable; we oppose the criminalization of socialist thought, anti-war activity, and international political solidarity.The conviction against Bogdan Syrotiuk must be overturned, and he must be released immediately.Socialist thought is not a crime.Opposing war is not a crime.Free Bogdan Syrotiuk!
Socialist Party of Turkey
Articles and speeches by Bogdan Syrotiuk
This speech was delivered by Bogdan Syrotiuk on behalf of the Young Guard of Bolshevik Leninists to the 2022 International Online May Day Rally on May 2, 2022, a few weeks after the Putin regime’s invasion of Ukraine and the beginning of the US-NATO war with Russia.
Based on original interviews, this article by Bogdan Syrotiuk, published under the pseudonym Stepan Geller, provides a unique and chilling account of the crimes of the Ukrainian fascists of Stepan Bandera against working people and youth of Ukraine.
These two speeches were delivered by Bogdan Syrotiuk and Andrei Ritsky, the leaders of the Young Guard of the Bolshevik Leninists in Ukraine and Russia, to the 2023 International Online May Day Rally.
This article documents the glorification of the Nazi collaborators of the Waffen SS Galicia division on Ukrainian television in the wake of the Canadian parliament’s standing ovation for the Ukrainian Nazi collaborator Yaroslav Hunka.
On November 28, 2023, the long-standing American Trotskyist leader Helen Halyard passed away. In this statement, submitted on behalf of the YGBL, Bogdan Syrotiuk pays tribute to Halyard and outlines the significance of her struggle for the building of the Trotskyist movement in the former Soviet Union.
In this statement, Bogdan Syrotiuk draws a political balance sheet of the outcome of the 2014 Kiev coup that was backed by US and German imperialism and played a central role in preparing the ongoing NATO war against Russia in Ukraine.
Recent developments in the campaign to free Bogdan Syrotiuk
Left-wing organizations in Latin America, Europe, North America take up the defense of imprisoned Ukrainian socialist Bogdan Syrotiuk
At least a dozen left-wing political organizations in 11 countries have publicly backed the campaign to free Bogdan Syrotiuk, the 27-year-old Ukrainian socialist sentenced to 15 years in prison on August 10 for opposing the war.
Andre Damon•
Johannes Stern discusses the campaign to free Bogdan Syrotiuk on The Katie Halper Show
Johannes Stern joins The Katie Halper Show to discuss the 15-year sentence against the 27-year-old Ukrainian socialist Bogdan Syrotiuk and the international campaign to win his freedom.
Campaign to free Ukrainian Trotskyist Bogdan Syrotiuk discussed on NZ Māori radio
Members of the Socialist Equality Group (New Zealand) exposed the fascist Ukrainian court’s frame-up of the young Trotskyist leader, who is sentenced to 15 years in prison for “treason” for opposing the war.
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Amid growing support for Ukrainian political prisoner Bogdan Syrotiuk, the New York Times maintains its guilty silence
One week after a Ukrainian court sentenced the socialist Bogdan Syrotiuk to 15 years in prison, the Times published a front-page feature on a Ukrainian held in Russia—while maintaining its total silence on the political prisoners of the Zelensky regime.
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Hunger strike against inhumane conditions, forced labor and torture in Ukrainian prisons
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Ukraine blocks website of daily newspaper junge Welt
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