Giya Tsertsvadze, a Georgian-born volunteer who had been fighting for Ukraine, was arrested on Jan. 15 at Kyiv’s Zhulyany Airport after Russia put him on a wanted list in a murder case that he believes to be fabricated. He was released on Jan. 26 but his extradition to Russia has not yet been approved or rejected.
Meanwhile, Borys Zakharov from the Kharkiv Human Rights Group said on Jan. 17 that Ukrainian authorities were preparing the extradition of 11 Russian volunteers fighting for Ukraine, including several who are under arrest in Ukraine. Some of the fighters are being prosecuted in Russia on charges of plotting to overthrow the government and extremism.
On Jan. 1, a Russian citizen wanted in his native country on terrorism charges was arrested at Boryspil Airport – an accusation often used in Russia against political dissidents.
In a similar case, the Prosecutor General’s Office and the State Migration Service have been cooperating with Russian authorities since 2014 on the extradition of Pyotr Lyubchenkov, a Russian emigrant being prosecuted in his native country for writing a pro-Ukrainian post. The Ukrainian prosecutors caved in under public pressure in December 2016 and rejected the extradition request.
The legal formalities cited by Ukrainian prosecutors for cooperating with the aggressor – such as the extradition treaty with Russia – are no more than an excuse for corrupt bureaucrats who routinely violate the law. Regardless of whether specific fighters committed any crimes, some of the charges are political. Moreover, Russia is a brutal dictatorship with no independent courts and is at war with Ukraine. Such extradition requests must be immediately rejected as politically motivated, and Ukraine’s parliament should also adopt a law to ban extradition to Russia.
The Ukrainian authorities are also refusing to give either asylum or war participant status to foreign fighters.
They have failed to pass functioning legislation to give citizenship and residency permits to foreign fighters since it was registered in 2015. Some laws on the issue have been passed, but they are not working since foreign fighters have to get documents on their criminal record from Russia, the aggressor country, and due to other bureaucratic hurdles.
To add insult to injury, soldiers fighting for Ukraine are being pressured while as many Kremlin-backed separatists are roaming free in Ukrainian-controlled territory.
Many of Ukraine’s politicians, prosecutors and judges are in fact its worst internal enemy. This brazenly corrupt and lawless bureaucracy is as rotten as Russia’s and it’s no wonder that they are helping the aggressor.
As Ukraine’s patriots are dying on the war front, bureaucrats in Kyiv are lining their pockets and skimming off the profits of the war.
Well, until the veterans returning home run out of patience.
