I don't know Maxym Butkevych. But some of my colleagues do.
They describe Max with deep admiration. More than simply a prominent human rights activist and journalist in Ukraine with whom they’ve worked often in the past, he is a beloved friend.
Max was Ukraine’s leading advocate for refugees and migrants. He stood up for the most marginalized in society. He actively promoted tolerance and condemned hate speech.
In March 2022, after the all-out Russian invasion of his country began, 45-year-old Max told people he was putting his life on hold to join the military.
“I have been an anti-militarist all my conscious life and remain so by conviction,” he wrote then. “But at this time, I feel [this is] my place. These are tragic times. Everyone is doing what they can in the place they are.”
Unfortunately, Max was captured by enemy forces in June. Kremlin-controlled media described him as a “valuable catch.” But being a high-profile figure – he used to work at the BBC’s Ukrainian service and was on the board of Amnesty International’s Ukraine section – didn’t help him.
Most everything from here on out in Max’s story needs to be in quotation marks. Nothing at all is real apart from Russian authorities’ abuse of Max.
Last week, the fake “Supreme Court” of the non-existent “Luhansk People’s Republic” – that is, a Russian-occupied part of Ukraine in international law – sentenced Max to 13 years imprisonment.
The “charges” in the “trial” were naturally bogus. His accusers said the long-time humanitarian and respected human rights defender had “confessed” to having deliberately targeted and wounded civilians.
They showed a video of Max, his face looking swollen and the flesh around his eyes dark and puffy, mechanically saying what the fatigues-wearing interrogator wants to hear.
There’s no question Max’s “confession” was obtained by force, very likely through torture. There is abundant evidence authorities in Russian-occupied areas of Luhansk and Donetsk regions torture detainees.
Torturing a prisoner of war is a grave violation of the Geneva Conventions. So is convicting a POW a without a fair trial. More war crimes added to Russia’s long list of atrocities in Ukraine...
I don't know Maxym Butkevych. But I would very much like to see his torturers face justice one day. In a real trial. In a real court.