ALERT! Demand the U.S. State Department and government of Ukraine take full responsibility to protect the lives of Mikhail and Alexander Kononovich!
The whole world is watching!
Armed police of Ukraine’s Territorial Center of [military] Recruitment (TCC) detained the brothers Mikhail and Alexander Konovovich on Feb. 25, not far from the house where they are under house arrest. The brothers were wearing GPS bracelets. The TCC charged the Kononovich brothers with being on the Ukrainian wanted list as evaders of military service. This charge subjects them to forced conscription into the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) and mobilization directly from the place of detention to the front lines of the war.
Mikhail Kononovich films Ukrainian military recruitment police illegally arresting him and his brother, Alexander, on Feb. 25 in Lutsk, Ukraine. Credit: Mikhail Kononovich
In a Feb. 25 public statement, the Kononovich brothers wrote: “Dear comrades, we officially appeal to the … anti-fascists of Europe and the USA, comrades, come out to the embassies and consulates of Ukraine around the world in our defense! The Zelensky regime wants to officially kill us. They want to send us to war and kill us there or put us in jail on new charges as evaders from military service. The regime has failed for years to condemn us according to the law and therefore wants to kill us! Dear comrades, we ask for help, our lives are in your hands.”
The brothers have been under a fraudulent indictment since March 2022 for alleged treason and threats to overthrow the state for opposing the U.S./NATO’s proxy war with Russia in Ukraine.
The Kononovich brothers, who are 43 years old, are members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and leaders of the Lenin Komsomol of Ukraine, the Antifascist Committee of Ukraine and the Association of Belarusians of Ukraine.
The Communist Party is banned by the Zelensky regime in Ukraine. There is a Ukrainian law that explicitly prohibits the brothers’ mobilization into the military, as the brothers are accused under Article 109 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine with “actions aimed at the forcible overthrow of power.”
However, when the TCC police of the city of Lutsk were informed of the Kononovich’s ineligibility for mobilization, they nevertheless took the brothers under force and threat of arms, charged them with dodging military conscription, and ordered them to report to the city of Lutsk to undergo a medical exam and military training. With the Azov Battalion and other fascist forces operating within the AFU and Ukrainian police state, such an order against communist political opponents is understood by past practice to be a decision for summary execution.
Today’s news headlines report a possible deal between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky regarding Ukraine’s minerals, with the ostensible goal of ending the war with Russia.
We, the undersigned, call on the U.S. State Department and the Ukrainian government to immediately stop the persecution of Mikhail and Alexander Kononovich and all other forces in Ukraine who have been campaigning for peace for many years. (Sign the emergency petition today! tinyurl.com/3sk62puk)
Call the U.S. State Department (202) 647-4000, the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington, D.C., (202) 349-2920 and Ukrainian embassies and consulates around the world where you live to demand:
“Hands Off Mikhail and Alexander Kononovich!”
“Stop the assassinations!”
“Drop the frame-up charges now!