Free Mikhail and Alexander Kononovich!

by Theo Russell

Last Friday the Kononovich brothers Alexander and Mikhail, joined comrades from across Europe at an online meeting organised by the Turkish-based Anti Imperialist Front.
The brothers, members of the Leninist Communist Youth of Ukraine and ethnic Belarusians from the West Ukrainian Volhynia region, were arrested on 7th March 2022 and tortured in a Kiev detention centre. At that time the NATO puppet president Zelensky banned every opposition party in Ukraine. On 5th July 2022 the Communist Party of Ukraine was permanently banned, with all of its assets seized.
They are currently under house arrest and wearing ankle tags, and the case against them is still going through the courts. They explained that while the government had failed to provide credible evidence against the brothers, they are hoping to stop the case as soon as possible and then send them straight to the front line of the war.
Mikhail Kononovich told the meeting that "the Kiev regime knows we are not guilty and is trying to end our court case in any way possible. When it was opened they thought we would agree to confess our guilt, they thought they could break us, but we are communists, so it didn't work out like that. And the main thing is that they underestimated the level of international support we received.
"Their aim now is to end the case as quickly as possible and then send us immediately to the front line of the war.
"We know that thousands of comrades are fighting for us, and it's not possible for us to betray them. We have families, we have children, and we don't want to die, we're not idiots, but it's better to die than to betray all of you".
Less than three weeks ago Alexander was kidnapped outside the courthouse and sent to a military recruitment centre. He was only saved from being sent to the front because Mikhail had a phone and sent a message to international supporters. He compared the situation in Ukraine with that of Chile after the 1973 Pinochet coup.
Such kidnappings have occurred ever since the 2014 coup, with police standing by and judges cowered by death threats from the Nazi gangs. The brothers are currently under house arrest and wearing GPS ankle bracelets.
The meeting also discussed the possibility of the brothers being sent to serve their sentences in an EU state on the basis that the Kiev regime can't guarantee their safety. They said this had actually happened to some other defendants from Ukraine.
It was agreed at the meeting to hold an emergency protest at Ukrainian embassies around the world, including Russia, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Serbia, Greece, Germany, and Britain, and a further protest on Saturday 4th April.