July 31, 2026
The following is a report by the Coordination of Communist Cells, a communist and anti-imperialist organization in the Spanish state regarding the situation of political prisoners in the part of Ukraine ruled from Kiev and backed by the U.S. and European Union imperialists. The information is valuable to counter the lying propaganda from pro-imperialist politicians and the corporate media in the U.S. and the EU. The note at the end provides sources (1).
Translation: John Catalinotto.
On Aug. 5, some 92 anti-fascist political prisoners incarcerated in Ukraine will go on a hunger strike to denounce the brutal conditions of their imprisonment and the torture they are suffering.
While the alternative press has published articles on the fascist nature of the Ukrainian regime established through a coup d’état in 2014 — the Euromaidan — which elevated Nazi organizations to the leadership of the state, particularly to control the repressive forces, much less is known about the persecution unleashed against those who have the courage to oppose them.
In 2015, the three existing communist parties were banned, and another 11 were outlawed in 2022, accused of being “pro-Russian.”
1. General Information on Political Prisoners in Ukraine. Political prisoners in Ukraine live under particularly harsh conditions, often far worse than those of people convicted of murder, rape and other serious crimes.
There are currently more than 50,000 classic political prisoners: people imprisoned for their political views, their antiwar stance or their anti-fascist activities.
In addition, 150,000 people are being prosecuted for desertion, evasion of mandatory military service, refusal to participate in the war, etc.
The total number of people under investigation or facing criminal charges exceeds 200,000.
Another 300,000 people have been subjected to summonses from the police and the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), intimidation, threats, so-called “preventive conversations,” home visits by security forces and pressure from armed nationalist groups.
The Zelensky regime does not view political prisoners as ordinary inmates but as a personal threat to its power and its existence, which is based on plunder. These are people who protested against the current Nazi regime, corruption, theft and plunder, the government’s illicit enrichment and war and are being persecuted for their beliefs.
Just as occurred in the Nazi concentration camps — where common criminals were treated much better in ordinary prisons — Ukrainian political prisoners say they dream of being transferred to regular prisons where those convicted of serious crimes are held, since the conditions there are considerably better.
Penal Colonies No. 22 and 86
The Zelensky regime has created specific concentration camps to house political prisoners. Specifically, these are Penal Colony No. 122 in Pyatikhatki and Penal Colony No. 86 in Vinnytsia.
In these institutions, political prisoners are systematically deprived of their human dignity and fundamental rights. According to the prisoners, administrators and prison staff refer to them disparagingly as “Gypsies,” a [racist] term that conveys a sense of total powerlessness: they are nobody, they have no rights, and anything can be done to them.
Once again, this attitude is reminiscent of the practices of Nazi Germany, where certain groups of people were deliberately declared inferior, dehumanized and effectively excluded from the legal system.
Political prisoners live without hot water or heating. They are forced to sleep in rooms that resemble pigsties, as the facilities are not properly equipped. They are forced to work 12 hours a day. For one month of this forced labor, they receive approximately 4 euros; all of this is documented in official records.
Even the death of a political prisoner has no real legal consequences for the prison administration. The dehumanization of the prisoners creates an atmosphere of total impunity for those in authority, in which neither the health nor the lives of prisoners are valued.
2. Several specific incidents illustrate the dire situation of political prisoners in Ukraine. As early as February 2026, approximately one month after their arrival, the first fatality occurred: Andriy Gimgin. According to available information, he died after being held in intolerable conditions.
Vinnytsia Penitentiary Colony No. 86 began to be transformed into a detention center for political prisoners (a concentration camp) in December 2025. The first prisoners were transferred there in January 2026.
Andriy Gimgin’s death was the first tragic testament to the consequences of the system of abuse, exploitation, denial of medical care and total marginalization of political prisoners at Vinnytsia Penal Colony No. 86. Their deaths demonstrate the tragic consequences that can result from prolonged incarceration, psychological pressure, the lack of hope for a fair trial and the demand to confess to a crime that was not committed. The reason for their punishment is that Oleksandr Melnyk dared to speak out about his human and civil rights and to denounce to the world the torture, murder and mistreatment of prisoners at Colony No. 86.
Another recent case involves Vladimir Novikov, who was held in a pretrial detention center alongside the Ukrainian communist brothers Mikhail and Oleksandr Kononovich. He was sentenced to ten years in prison with confiscation of property. Vladimir Novikov also refused to cooperate with the SBU, to incriminate himself or to accept the fabricated criminal case. He refused to yield to pressure and admit guilt for a crime he had not committed. In an act of extreme protest against the illegality and the fabricated criminal case, Vladimir Novikov hanged himself in his cell.
Political prisoner Oleksandr Melnyk, who was the first to publicly denounce the events at Vinnytsia Penitentiary Colony No. 86, is being subjected to extreme cruelty. As a result, Oleksandr Melnyk has been held in solitary confinement for 30 days. There, he remains without access to drinking water, rest or even a toilet (just a bucket in a corner for defecation), food or basic living conditions.
It was he who brought to light information about brutal beatings, humiliations and sexual abuse of prisoners, including allegations of rape using a mop. According to the prisoners, the abuses are videotaped to later blackmail and intimidate the victims.
Oleksandr Melnyk’s solitary confinement is retaliation for having denounced these crimes and an attempt to silence him. His life and health are in grave danger.
3. The case of the Kononovich brothers and Georgy Buiko: exemplary cases of persecution, torture and resistance
Mikhail and Aleksander Kononovich, who are staunch communists, began denouncing the fascism that was gradually infiltrating Ukrainian society — with the authorities’ tacit approval — in 2010. As a result, they were repeatedly beaten, and the premises of the association they founded, “Free Brothers,” were raided.
Despite this, the Kononovich brothers continued their anti-fascist activities, and in 2012, while flying a hang glider, they distributed information about the massacre of Poles perpetrated by Bandera’s followers — the fascist UPA [Ukrainian Insurgent Army (Ukrainska Povstanska Armiia)] organization — in Volyn (2); they dropped the leaflets over the site where the Bandershtadt nationalist festival was being held. After that, they were attacked and beaten by a group of neo-Nazis wearing balaclavas and camouflage uniforms. As early as 2012, neo-Nazi groups had weapons and combat units, as well as the support of the Ukrainian authorities for their actions and the full collusion of the Ukrainian police.
Following the fascist coup d’état of 2014, the struggle became even more dangerous, but the brothers’ activism continued. In 2014, Mikhail became head of the Leninist Communist Youth Union of Ukraine, while Alexander became vice president of the Anti-Fascist Committee of Ukraine. The brothers actively protested against the war in Donbass and Washington’s interference in Ukraine’s affairs. The repression intensified.
Since the 2014 Maidan coup d’état, the Kononovich brothers have carried out numerous solidarity activities with the people of Donbass. From that time until 2018, Aleksandr was attacked five times and Mikhail six times. In none of these cases have the attackers been brought to justice, even though, in almost all of them, the perpetrators did not even conceal their faces. On one occasion, the attack was so brutal that the brothers had to be taken away by ambulance; afterward, the neo-Nazi thugs gave interviews standing next to a pool of blood, without hiding at all.
On another occasion, the Banderites took the brothers into the forest and forced them, in front of a camera, to renounce their communist convictions. But the camera captured only two bloodied faces, as the Kononovich brothers did not renounce their beliefs. On another occasion, Nazi thugs pierced Mikhail Kononovich’s head with an iron spike. However, all criminal cases against the radical militiamen were “dismissed” during the pretrial investigation.
On March 2, 2022, Alexander and Mikhail Kononovich disappeared. Just before their disappearance, they had been hounded by Banderites, who first called for reprisals against the brothers on social media and then went to pressure the Kononovichs’ mother (who has health problems and a disability), threatening her to make her reveal how to find her sons.
Following the brothers’ disappearance, not even their close relatives were able to find out where they were or what had happened to them for nearly two months. Later, information was received from people who had been released from prison that the Kononovich brothers had been detained by the SBU. After their detention, they were beaten nearly to death over several days; their ribs were broken and their faces were severely disfigured. In addition, all their belongings were stolen.
After their arrest, the SBU accused the Kononoviches of violating Article 109 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine: “actions aimed at forcibly changing the constitutional order or seizing state power,” and pressured them to sign a confession. They refused and were brutally tortured.
A doctor was only able to examine them a month later. The SBU threatened Alexander that they would rape his 13-year-old daughter, Kateryna, in front of him. Later, when the half-dead brothers were finally taken to the pretrial detention center, they were held for months in solitary confinement without hygiene products or warm clothing and locked in a cell with criminals and murderers.
In December 2022, following a series of demonstrations by left-wing parties and anti-fascist activists in solidarity with the brothers outside Ukrainian embassies in European countries, the regime was forced to release the Kononovich brothers under house arrest with mandatory electronic ankle monitors.
Since then, trials against them have been held repeatedly but have failed due to lack of evidence, and because they do not admit guilt. Despite this, they constantly receive death threats and are made to feel in every possible way that they are under 24-hour surveillance: their correspondence is read, their calls are tapped, and SBU agents periodically visit their apartment.
At the same Solomianskyi District Court in Kiev, where brothers Mikhail and Aleksandr Kononovich are on trial, another communist and anti-fascist, Georgy Vladimirovich Buiko, is currently on trial.
Georgy Vladimirovich Buiko was born in 1947 in Zhytomyr (Ukrainian SSR) and was educated in communist ideology while studying at Donetsk State University. In 1967 he joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
Following the collapse of the USSR, he did not renounce his communist ideals but instead became even more committed to them. After the Communist Party was banned in 1991, he founded the Committee for the Restoration of the Communist Party of Ukraine. Georgi Buiko and his colleagues succeeded in having the Communist Party of Ukraine reinstated in 1993, allowing it to operate legally, and its representatives were elected as deputies to the Ukrainian Parliament.
Georgy Buiko became one of the key figures in the Communist Party of Ukraine (CPU) during the post-Soviet period. He worked as a full professor at Donetsk State University, holds a Ph.D. in history, was twice elected to the Verkhovna Rada as a representative of the Communist Party of Ukraine and was an active member of the Union of Journalists of Ukraine and the International Federation of Journalists.
In Ukraine, following the collapse of the USSR, nationalist and neo-Nazi organizations grew stronger year after year. In 2007, to combat the glorification of fascism, Georgiy Vladimirovich Buiko founded and led the Anti-Fascist Committee of Ukraine. In 2011, the Anti-Fascist Committee of Ukraine, which he headed, together with the Communist Party of Ukraine and the Russian Bloc party, organized protest rallies in Kiev against nationalism and neo-Nazism.
Between 2014 and 2015, Georgy Buiko appeared on Russian television on several occasions to harshly criticize the coup plotters who organized the fascist coup in Ukraine. He also criticized neo-Nazism and, from his home country of Ukraine, actively participated in rallies honoring the Soviet soldiers who gave their lives for freedom in the fight against Hitler’s fascism. Together with his comrades, he tried to prevent the demolition of monuments to the Soviet soldiers who liberated Ukraine from fascism.
The Communist Party of Ukraine was banned in July 2022. In August 2023, Georgiy Buiko was arrested and charged with violating Article 110, Part 1, of the Criminal Code of Ukraine and accused of “violating the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine” and “publicly calling for actions aimed at changing the borders of Ukraine’s territory or state border.” In addition, the SBU accused Buiko of keeping communist and “pro-Russian” publications at home.
The first hearing in Georgiy Buiko’s case took place on Aug. 15, 2023, and Buiko’s trial has since followed the same pattern as that of the Kononovich brothers: the prosecution never appeared in court, and it was never possible to determine exactly which actions were interpreted as “interference with the territorial integrity of Ukraine.” Not even the prosecutor could explain this, as there is absolutely no evidence of “guilt.”
Georgy Buiko’s only “crime” is his political views and his harsh criticism of neo-Nazism and fascism, which is why the current Ukrainian regime — controlled by fascist organizations — has decided that the 77-year-old communist should remain in prison indefinitely.
4 . Conclusions
- Imperialism — especially in this phase of great aggression stemming from capitalism’s deep economic crisis — is accompanied by fascist processes within countries. The most brutal forms of fascism are spawned, organized and financed by the imperialist oligarchy in collaboration with local fascist organizations.
- The current fascist regime in Ukraine is the result of a coup d’état supported and financed by the U.S. and the European Union. A Ukraine under the fascist boot is essential [to the West] so that its people can serve as cannon fodder for the objectives of Euro-American imperialism against Russia.
- The more than 300,000 political prisoners in Ukraine — whether for defending their anti-fascist ideals or for refusing to go to war — are paying with their freedom, their health and their lives the price of opposing the common enemy: imperialism.
- The anti-imperialist struggle and the preparation for revolutionary defeatism in the NATO member states require us to develop all possible forms of internationalist solidarity with political prisoners, especially those in Ukraine, who, due to their country’s position, suffer particularly harsh attacks.
- The processes of communist construction and anti-imperialist unity of which the Coordination of Communist Cells (CNC) is a part must regard solidarity with political prisoners — both within our own country and on the international stage — as a fundamental and indispensable pillar.
- This internationalist, anti-imperialist and anti-fascist solidarity takes on special relevance as the Euro-NATO oligarchy prepares for war against Russia and fascism takes on increasingly concrete forms in our countries as an instrument of domination — precisely at a time when the crisis objectively opens up revolutionary prospects for the oppressed.
NOTES:
(1) The data on the situation of political prisoners in Ukraine and the specific stories that have helped illustrate this report were obtained from INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY FOR POLITICAL PRISONERS (IS4PP) — Spreading news about the struggle of political prisoners, sharing their photos and videos and promoting international solidarity.
(2) The Volhynia massacre was perpetrated by the neo-Nazi organization UPA in 1943; today, members of this organization hold prominent positions of power within the Ukrainian regime. This organization, along with other Ukrainian nationalists, exterminated approximately 100,000 Polish people. The memory of that massacre — like so many others that remain unpunished to this day — has recently led the Polish government to revoke the Order of the White Eagle, which had previously been awarded to Zelensky.
