Political Prisoners in the Ukraine: Hundreds joined a 1- Day Solidarity Hunger Strike

To expose and protest the inhuman conditions, torture and killings of political prisoners in the Ukraine, a total of 425 people from 16 countries took part in a 1-day hunger strike on August 5.

Ukraine witnessed the first-ever collective one-day hunger strike of political prisoners against torture and murder at Vinnytsia Penitentiary No. 86.

162 people participated in the hunger strike, 92 of whom were political prisoners.

The following took part in the hunger strike:

Vinnytsia Correctional Colony No. 86:
Alexander Melnik, Yagoda, Vilchenko, Lomakin, Samir Bedrashko, Mikhail Sazonov, Dzyuba, Nikolai Pyatachenko , Kotenko, Shapran , Vitaly Kigilchenko , Batarev , Kelyukin , Yarodar Vitlinets.
Another 17 people supported the hunger strike.

Pyatikhatka penal colony No. 122, Dnipropetrovsk region:
Yuriy Petrovsky.
Another 12 people supported the hunger strike.

Nikolaev pre-trial detention center:
Igor Savitsky, Anatoly Nikolaev.
Another 7 people supported the hunger strike.

Lviv pretrial detention center:
Svetlana Novitskaya, Inna Ivanochko Inna.
Another 4 people supported the hunger strike.

Lukyanivskiy pre-trial detention center, Kyiv:
Mikhail Vasiliev, Andrey Kuznetsov, Konstantin Kukshtel, Ilya Druga, Alexander Burgun , Vasyl Yudakov.
Another 23 people supported the hunger strike.

Kyiv, political prisoners under house arrest:
Mikhail Kononovich, Alexander Kononovich, Georgy Buiko, Anatoly Miruta.

A total of 92 political prisoners.

At least 50 communists and anti-fascists, as well as another 20 relatives of political prisoners, also carried out a one-day hunger strike while free in Ukraine.

The organizers of the resistance action were the Ukrainian Association for the Protection of the Rights of Political Prisoners and Human Rights, founded by the Kononovich brothers, and the Platform of International Solidarity for Political Prisoners.

The Anti-Imperialist Front and the People’s Front (of Turkey) supported the call of Ukrainian political prisoners and mobilized hundreds of people to participate in a one-day hunger strike and solidarity actions.

The voice of Ukrainian political prisoners was widely heard throughout the world and caused a great wave of solidarity.

Outside of Ukraine, 260 people from 15 countries participated in a one-day hunger strike in support of Ukrainian political prisoners. Several dozen other communist, anti-fascist, and anti-imperialist organizations and individual activists expressed their solidarity with statements, publications on their Internet resources, and photographs in support of the action.

Distribution of hunger strikers by country:

• Ukraine: 162, including 92 political prisoners
• Greece: 117, including 14 political prisoners
• Summer camp in France: 62
• Turkey: 25, including 9 political prisoners
• Austria: 16
• Belarus: 8
• Great Britain: 7
• Russia: 5
• Basque Country: 5 political prisoners
• Germany: 4
• France: 4
• Netherlands: 3
• Serbia: 2
• Belgium: 2
• Latvia: 1
• China: 1
• Spain: 1

Nearly 40 organizations from a dozen countries supported the action of Ukrainian political prisoners:

• Anti-imperialist Front

• Popular Front (Türkiye)

• TAYAD (Türkiye)

• Delegation “Until Victory”

• Group Yorum

• Borotba (Ukraine-Russia)

• Union of Communists of Ukraine (in Ukraine)

• Bultza EHM-L (Basque Country)

• Committee of Solidarity of the Basque Country with Donbass (Basque Country)

• RKPR (Russia)

• RKSMb (Russia)

• Vanguard of the Red Youth of Labor Russia (Russia)

• Venceremos Movement (Russia)

• Krasnogvardeisky branch of the Union of Moscow Workers (Russia)

• Labor Russia Party (Russia)

• Social Center “October” (Spain)

• Coordinating Council of Communist Cells – Anti-imperialist Movements of Madrid (Spain)

• Madrid Platform against NATO and military bases (Spain)

• Communist Platform of Ciudad Real (Spain)

• Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain (Spain)

• Red Network (Spain)

• Andalusian Workers’ Union (Spain)

• SODEPAU (Valencia, Spain)

• Proletarian Union (Spain)

• International organization “Red Aid”

• Movement Against Repression (Spain)

• Herritar Batasuna

• Anti-Imperialist Front – Euskal-Errii

• ASSE ANTIIMPERIALISTA (Italy)

• Workers World ( USA )

• Resistir.info ( Portugal )

• All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (Russia)

• Coordination of Solidarity with Palestine (Rome, Italy)

• Union for Communist Reconstruction (France)

• Campaign for the Freedom of the Kononovich Brothers, Free-Kononovich.de (Germany)

• Research Group of the International Labour Movement (Germany)

• September 23 Movement (Bulgaria)

• Party of the Radical Left (Serbia)

• New Communist Party (UK)

• International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity (UK)