A 27-year-old communist from Pervomaisk was convicted of treason

A court in the Mykolaiv region found 27-year-old Bohdan Syrotiuk guilty of treason. He led a banned communist organization and wrote articles for a foreign propaganda website.

The verdict was handed down by the PervomaiskyCity and District Court.

In April 2024, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) detained Bohdan Syrotiuk, who was 25 years old at the time. He led the “Young Guard of Bolshevik-Leninists” (MGBL), a Trotskyist organization.

According to the investigation, no later than July 2022, Syrotiuk began collaborating with the “World Socialist Web Site” (WSWS)—a publication affiliated with the International Committee of the Fourth International.

From October 2022 to April 2024, he used pseudonyms to draft, translate, and submit articles to the website’s representatives. The materials were published openly on the WSWS and on the MGBL page on the social network “VKontakte.”

The investigation examined 14 such articles. Based on the results of expert analyses, seven incidents were included in the indictment.

A linguistic expert analysis commissioned by the court identified passages in six of the seven articles that justified Russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine, which began in 2014. The court dismissed one charge from the indictment—no evidence of a crime was found in that instance.

The materials, in particular, claimed that the war was “unleashed” by the U.S. and NATO, and referred to the Ukrainian authorities as “bourgeois nationalists” in the service of the West. In one of the articles, the Soviet “Waffen-SS ‘Galicia’ Division” was mentioned in connection with current events in Ukraine.

During a search of Syrotiuk’s residence, investigators seized his phones and laptop. On these devices, investigators found correspondence with representatives of the website and with a Russian citizen. According to the court, the man himself raised the issue of a monthly monetary payment—and subsequently received such funds.

During a search of the basement used by the suspect, military equipment belonging to the Russian Armed Forces was also seized: a load-bearing vest, a field jacket, shoulder patches bearing the inscription “Armed Forces of Russia,” and epaulets marked “Senior Lieutenant.” The court ordered these items to be destroyed.

Following Sirotyuk’s arrest, the WSWS editorial board wrote a letter to Oksana Markarova, then Ukraine’s ambassador to Washington, demanding his release.

In court, the defendant did not admit guilt. He stated that he is a patriot of Ukraine and a socialist by conviction, condemns the Russian Federation’s invasion, and that the editorial office of the website for which he wrote is located in the United States, not in Russia.

The defense insisted that the prosecution had failed to prove the existence of a “foreign organization” as defined by the treason statute and requested an acquittal.

The court did not agree with these arguments. It found that the WSWS is a “communist-oriented propaganda and news agency” that disseminates narratives consistent with Russian propaganda. The website has been blocked in Ukraine since June 2024.

The court found Sirotyuk guilty under Part 2 of Article 111 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (treason) and sentenced him to 15 years in prison with confiscation of property.

The pretrial detention order remained unchanged. The sentence will be counted from the date of his arrest—April 25, 2024. The convicted man was also ordered to pay over 178,000 hryvnias in court costs for expert examinations.

Ірина Глухова