Intimidation

Ukraine is often lauded for its courageous stand against invasion but condemned for its corrupt practices. Unable to tell the truth from the lies in the media, I visited Ukraine to see for myself, and I was disheartened to find alarming practices of government intimidation as well as visible corruption. 

 

The sour taste in my mouth started innocuously enough at the Kyiv United Nations (UN) building. I was walking the streets, filming, when I doubled back to re-record a long shot of a snowy UN vehicle through a fence. I heard a man shouting in the distance.

 

With a noticeable limp, it took him some time to catch up as I prepared for what I anticipated would be a tense conversation. I asked him if he spoke English, and he did. Then he started our conversation by warning me against “filming everything in town.” The alarm bells began blaring in my mind as I wondered how he knew I filmed “everything” in town. 

 

With martial law in effect, I expected surveillance – close watch – before I departed, but I did not yet fear it because I did not anticipate intimidation – an attempt to frighten. Regardless, this man, who identified himself as Sergey (as did several other men I met in Kyiv), confirmed my suspicion that I was under surveillance – how else would he have known that I had spent the previous hours filming everything that caught my attention between Maidan Square and the Presidential Palace? 

 

Nevertheless, I continued my conversation with Sergey as conversation seemed like the best path to avoid a problem with the authorities. I reassured him that I followed all posted signs prohibiting photography in sensitive areas while I listened carefully to gauge his perspective on the prospects of peace.

 

Sergey informed me that he had been discharged from the National Guard following an injury suffered in the Battle of Kyiv – another hint that he was a state-affiliated actor and that our meeting was no chance encounter. After all, military-aged men are still utilized by the armed forces after they are injured or wounded, whether as spies like Sergey or even drone operators near the front lines. 

 

Having tipped his hand, I tried to reassure Sergey that I supported Ukrainian freedom. I left the conversation confident that I had succeeded in defusing any tension, showed myself to be genuinely interested in learning about Ukraine during the war, and was not the type of person who would cause the authorities any trouble. 

 

Besides, I mostly filmed the carefully constructed propaganda items laid out by the authorities – blown-out tanks, landmarks, memorials, and military recruitment posters. In my eyes, these were the items the government wanted us to film, so I didn’t foresee a serious problem. Moreover, the Ukrainian authorities offer an open invitation for journalists to visit.

 

Violence – the use of physical force to injure, abuse, damage, or destroy

 

While I initially chalked up my encounter with Sergey to a tense but manageable act of surveillance, it was only a few days later that I realized I faced intimidation, too.

 

I made this alarming discovery when I went to secure an off-street parking spot for my rental car. I first slipped and slid down an unshoveled Sofiivs'ka Street toward my vehicle. Then I arrived at my car to find a round hole smashed in the rear driver's side window. 

 

I immediately began to investigate the cause and was even more disheartened to find nothing but shards of glass in the back seat. No cobblestone was kicked up from a snow plow, nothing was missing from inside, and the remaining glass slid out of place when I opened the door, so I ruled out robbery. 

 

I had deliberately parked in front of a building guarded by a uniformed and armed soldier to prevent something like this from derailing my trip. Instead, the timing and circumstances made it clear to me that my window had been deliberately smashed by a state actor in an attempt to intimidate and frighten me. But why? 

 

The simple answer is that intimidation, surveillance, and thuggery are the Ukrainian way of governance – a holdover from their Soviet years. Ukraine simply knows no other way of governing itself besides showing its strong arms. Ukraine receives billions in military aid, but next to no support in building its democratic institutions. The result is what I witnessed – a skiddish regime that swings wildly at anyone asking serious questions and refusing to regurgitate the Ukrainian regime’s talking points.

 

After a few moments of utter panic spent contemplating whether I would die alone in Kyiv should intimidation escalate to coercion, I pressed on with my journey.

 

I decided to repair my vehicle and take my chances with a Polish rental car company rather than the Ukrainian authorities at the border, who might be put off by a smashed window. I also didn’t want to damage the car by driving it through a snowstorm without a window. 

 

Putting the pieces together in my mind while I awaited my appointment with the car repair shop, I started to see that the Ukrainian government was not a bulwark of democracy but rather a fledgling state still struggling to grasp the foundations of self-governance. 

 

Dispatching a spy to question me seemed reasonable enough, but smashing my window was a step too far. In Bucha, after I finally repaired my car and was free to travel, the picture finally became clear to me. 

 

Nonstop – not easing or letting up

 

Walking through the war-torn suburbs was among the most difficult experiences of my visit to Ukraine. Some residents appeared happy to have journalists continuing to document life in Bucha. Other moments, like passing by young women on the street and looking them in the eye, knowing that they had likely been raped in the very neighborhood, was utterly heartbreaking. 

 

I could understand then why angry soldiers accosted me throughout my brief visit to Bucha. The people of Bucha did not need journalists reopening their still-fresh wounds. Still, there’s no excuse for soldiers intimidating journalists for filming in public places. 

 

Intimidation is not just a casual act but a symptom of a beleaguered democracy. When soldiers are empowered beyond the cuff of their uniform sleeve to tamp down on journalism, it's a symptom of a serious power imbalance between the state and its citizens as well as a drive to control the press. 

 

At the same time, the intimidation from uniformed soldiers in Bucha was vastly different from the interaction at the UN and the smashing of my vehicle. The encounters in Bucha seemed to be unplanned run-ins, and while the urge of soldiers to protect their residents from further emotional pain is understandable, these confrontations are equally alarming as they indicate that Ukraine’s soldiers are empowered to bully journalists without consequence. 

 

I was able to quickly diffuse any tension with the Ukrainian soldiers by asking if they spoke English, but local journalists lack such a buffer and have documented the more stringent controls they face. Shortly after I departed Ukraine and informed local journalists of my experience, for example, the Kyiv Independent issued a damning report on the status of press freedom in Ukraine that aligned with my experience. 

 

The Independent and the Institute of Mass Information, which monitors press freedom in Ukraine, noted “systematic work aimed at discrediting journalists.” International NGOs, like Human Rights Watch, also corroborated my experience that the Ukrainian regime, unfortunately, focuses its critically limited resources on harassing journalists. 

 

Reform – to change into an improved condition

 

For the bulk of Ukraine’s thirty years as an independent nation, Europe and the United States largely disregarded Ukraine. Ukraine received minimal support in cultivating its democratic institutions, so it is no surprise that Ukraine’s government follows many of the same practices as Russia. 

 

While Ukraine and Russia both intimidate journalists, it's important to note that Ukraine stops a step short of Russia. Had I been in Russia, I surely would have been jailed or killed, but in Ukraine, a simple act of violence suffices. In the words of Russian President Vladimir Putin, “feel the difference.” 

 

Still, the lengths to which the Ukrainian regime will go to suppress dissent and control the narrative raise serious questions not only about the fundamental freedom of speech but also about the information that the Ukrainian regime withholds from its citizens and allies. The story of Ukraine courageously fighting off an authoritarian regime is sadly incomplete without the story of Ukrainian democracy cannibalizing itself as the military seizes more control over the fledgling democracy. 

 

Ukraine’s aspirations to join the highly democratic European Union (EU) are premature without reforms that immediately end all government-backed surveillance and intimidation of journalists. Ukraine must pursue robust press freedom during the war rather than postponing democracy until a day when the war is over. 

 

Along these lines, Ukraine must take immediate action to ensure that the public, both in Ukraine and worldwide, has more accurate information about what’s happening in Ukraine. That starts with a publicly available casualty count – a foundational element of press freedom within a nation at war. 

 

While condemning Ukraine for its shortcomings does little to advance justice and freedom in Ukraine, it’s clear that Ukraine requires prompt and significant reform. Though bombastic and highly regarded by Western governments, Volodymyr Zelensky presided over a severe stagnation of Ukrainian democracy. He claims to oppose the surveillance of journalists but has failed to put his words into action. President Zelensky must take immediate action to rein in the intimidation of journalists or resign. 

 

The EU and the US would be wise to support the Ukrainian people in their quest to emerge from this conflict as a robust and transparent democracy. This goal requires more than supplying military aid; it depends more on replacing Ukraine’s increasingly authoritarian institutions with a system of solid checks and balances.

 

Postponing democracy and freedom until another tomorrow only makes this goal more distant.