Borotba activists Maxim Firsov, Victor Shapinov and Maria Muratova missing

Revolutionary Communist International Tendency, 27.12.2014, www.thecommunists.net

The Ukrainian socialist organization Borotba has released the following statement below. The Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT) stands in unconditional solidarity with the Borotba activists and demands the immediate release of their comrades.

The RCIT points out that the kidnapping of the three Borotba activists underlines the increasing strength of reactionary forces in the Donbass republics. As we have elaborated in our publications the justified uprising of the workers and youth in east Ukraine has been hijacked by Russian imperialism in the summer 2014. (*) It is therefore urgent for socialists – including Borotba – to draw the necessary conclusions from this and to fight on two fronts: against the reactionary right-wing regime in Kiev which is a puppet of US and EU imperialism and against the right-wing Great Russian chauvinist leadership of the Donbass republics which is a puppet of Russian imperialism.

(*) See e.g. Michael Pröbsting: The Uprising in East Ukraine and Russian Imperialism. An Analysis of Recent Developments in the Ukrainian Civil War and their Consequences for Revolutionary Tactics, 22.October 2014, http://www.thecommunists.net/theory/ukraine-and-russian-imperialism/

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Statement from Borotba, 27.12.2014

The League for the Fifth International today received this statement from Borotba. We call on all revolutionary, anti-imperialist and anti-fascist forces and organisations to support Borotba's appeal and to circulate the statement as widely as possible.

Ukrainian opposition politicians and leftist political activists Maxim Firsov, Victor Shapinov and Maria Muratova are missing in Donetsk. At around 15.00 on December 21, the Borotbists were kidnapped by unknown persons. The kidnappers introduced themselves as members of Battalion “Vostok.”

According to the information available to us, the comrades are being held together with captured Ukrainian soldiers in the commandant's office on Elevatornaya Street in Donetsk city.

Communists Shapinov, Firsov and Muratova have fought all their lives against the Ukrainian ultra-nationalists and oligarchs, and were persecuted in Kiev and Odessa for their stance against the Ukrainian authorities.

Today Battalion “Vostok” accepted a plan, issuing from the Ukrainian side, to exchange a Ukrainian reconnaissance and sabotage group for imprisoned members of the people's militia.

If our comrades fall into the hands of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), they face repression in the dungeons of the Kiev junta. There is a threat of death from Ukrainian fascist-militants.

We appeal to Donetsk People's Republic Prime Minister, Alexander Vladimirovich Zakharchenko, Denis Pushilin, Battalion “Vostok” Commander Alexander Sergeyevich Khodakovsky, Boris A. Litvinov, and Dr. Andrei Purgin to intervene in the situation and take measures to release the anti-fascists Victor Shapinov, Maxim Firsov and Maria Muratova.