Ukrainian journalist and human rights defender Maksym Butkevych was sentenced to 13 years in prison by the Russian occupiers. Butkevych was not provided with a lawyer and was not given a chance to have a fair trial. The conditions of his detention and the other circumstances of his captivity are not known because the Russian Federation does not allow international observers to visit prisoners of war and civilian hostages.

Free Maksym Butkevych

·  Maksym Butkevych is a prominent Ukrainian human rights defender and journalist. He is a life-long anti-racist and a committed fighter against hate speech in all forms. He is one of the founders of the “No Borders” project, ZMINA Human Rights Center and Hromadske public radio. As a journalist, Butkevych worked for a number of Ukrainian as well as international media outlets. 

·  Butkevych joined the ranks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in March 2022 and was captured by Russian occupation forces in June 2022 in the Luhansk region. Almost immediately after Butkevych was taken prisoner, a number of Russian propagandist media published manifestly false and slanderous information about him: they ascribed to him statements that he had never made and views which are opposite to the ones that he held and professed publicly. All of this is evidence that Russians have been fabricating his case, painting Butkevych as a violent person capable of committing war crimes.

·  The fate of Butkevych is uncertain as we have seen a lot of evidence that Russian occupiers are executing Ukrainian prisoners of war even just for saying “Glory to Ukraine!”. Read more about the case of Maksym Butkevych in the statement of human rights organisations.

What’s going on?

·  With the support of the Russian population, Russia’s army continues its genocidal war against Ukraine. The Russian occupiers conduct their offensive in the directions of Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka, Marinka, and Shakhtarsk. Units of the Defense Forces of Ukraine repel enemy attacks. The biggest battles are taking place in the Donetsk region. 

·  On March 9th, Russian troops carried out massive shelling of the territory of Ukraine using hypersonic missiles. At least 6 people died, several were wounded. Infrastructural facilities were also hit, power was knocked out in several regions.

·  Since the very beginning of the full-scale invasion, the Russian military is making every effort to destroy the civilian population of Ukraine: they are shelling residential buildings and civilian infrastructure while detaining and torturing residents of occupied towns and villages. Civilians in occupied areas are brutally abused. In special torture centres planned by the Russian state, Ukrainian people have suffered torture with electric currents, beatings, and «punishment» with a shocker for incorrectly singing the national anthem of the Russian Federation or songs that the soldiers of the Russian Federation wanted to hear.

Save Ukrainian libraries

·  Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, at least 500 Ukrainian libraries have been completely ruined or partly damaged. Russians have been systematically withdrawing the books written by Ukrainian authors or translated into Ukrainian language from the libraries in the occupied territories and wiping them out.

·  Being supported by foreign partners, Ukrainian publishers and not indifferent Ukrainians, PEN Ukraine collects and sends new books in Ukrainian and English languages to libraries at the liberated and frontline territories. We have already supported libraries in the Chernihiv, Mykolaiv, Kherson, Dnipro and Sumy regions.

·  If you want to support Ukrainian libraries, please contact us at: ukraine.pen@gmail.com. 

Losses

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has recorded at least 22,209 civilian casualties in Ukraine since February 24, 2022. It is impossible to establish the actual number of dead, wounded, and forcibly displaced people due to the fact that the occupation forces are continuing their assault on Ukraine. Russia’s war against Ukraine has already produced over 8 million refugees.

·  On March 9, 2023, news emerged of the death of the founder of the network of Kyiv’s Rock-music schools Volodymyr Bulba. He was killed in a battle with the Russian aggressors. After the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, Bulba volunteered, and then joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

·  On March 14, 2023, well-known Ukrainian historian and archaeologist Yuriy Kovalenko was killed in action. Kovalenko was the author of more than 70 scientific articles and headed the research department of the Hlukhiv National Reserve. In 2021, he defended his dissertation and earned his PhD in history. At that time, he served in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, having signed a contract in December 2020.

Russian crimes against media

·  On March 13, 2023, a cameraman for Suspilne (the Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine) and Ukraine Armed Forces serviceman Oleksiy Olkhovyk died in Bakhmut. With the start of the full-scale invasion, Oleksiy Olkhovyk joined the 241st Territorial Defense Brigade of Kyiv, but later was sent to the front line in Donetsk region.

·  On March 15, 2023 Russian occupiers in Crimea detained Crimean Tatar activist and journalist Rolan Osmanov. Rolan Osmanov is an active protester against destruction of the Khan’s Palace in Bakhchysarai, which the Russian occupiers carry out under the pretext of ‘restoration’. He systematically attends illegal trials of political prisoners in occupied Crimea.

·  On March 21, 2023 the Crimean journalist Iryna Danylovych who was illegally imprisoned by the Russian occupiers, informed about the beginning of her dry hunger strike in protest against her denial of medical care. Earlier, the imprisoned journalist’s father informed that Iryna Danylovych had fainted while being convoyed to the illegal ‘court’. Human rights defenders demand immediate hospitalisation of unlawfully imprisoned journalist.

·  Find out more about journalists and media workers who died in Ukraine as a result of Russia’s full-scale war.

Share materials

·  Maksym Butkevych “Easter and Kalashnikov” (Hromadske radio);

·  Volodymyr Yermolenko “What is Ukrainian Culture?” (Ukraine World);

·  Andrey Kurkov “Sounds of Peace” (PEN Opp);

·  Artem Chapeye “Who’s got our back?” (Meridian Czernowitz);

·  Oleksandr Mykhed “Let’s talk about the war” (University of Oxford);

·  Sofia Andrukhovych “Haka, or the formation of identity” (Eurozine);

·  Halya Coynash “Crimean artist tortured into ‘apologising’ to Putin and Russian invaders of Ukraine” (KHPG);

·  Kateryna Mishchenko “Does Europe want Ukrainians as living partners or dead heroes?” (Guardian);

·  Richard Kurin “How Ukrainians Are Defending Their Cultural Heritage From Russian Destruction” (Smithsonian);

·  Anna Badkhen «The Fallout: Voices from Ukraine» (Emergence);

·  “War Plants Paper Flowers.” New Ukrainian Poetry by Iya Kiva, Ostap Slyvynsky, and Halyna Kruk (Literary Hub);

·  Poems by Yuliya Musakovska (The Continental);

·  Irene Hdez. Velasco “El otro parte de guerra: la devastadora destrucción (y expolio) del arte ucraniano” (El Confidencial in Spanish);

·  Mykoła Riabczuk: ta wojna trwa już dziewięć, jeżeli nie 300 lat (Polskie Radio in Polish);

·  Mikola Rjabčuks «Maigās varas tagad vairs nav» (Delfi in Latvian).

Dialogues on war

We continue our conversation series, #DialoguesOnWar, where Ukrainian and foreign intellectuals talk about the experience of the war and share their own observations:

·  Oleksandra Matviichuk and Anne Applebaum (March 24, 6 PM Kyiv time);

·  Olesya Khromeychuk and Timothy Garton Ash (March 30, 6 PM Kyiv time);

·  Oksana Rozumna (Kutsenko) and Peter Godwin (video);

·  Oksana Lutsyshyna and Arundhati Roy (text);

·  Dave Eggers and Yuliya Musakovska (text).

PEN Ukraine webpage on war

Visit our webpage for the latest news and materials on Russia’s war against Ukraine. Here you will find information on the situation in Ukraine, links to important materials and information resources, petitions, addresses, a list of publications about Ukraine to read in English, and books by Ukrainian authors recommended for translation. The page is continuously updated with the latest news and links.