Russian state targets Ukraine Solidarity Campaign

OCTOBER 11, 2024

A Russian authority — the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (ROSKOMNADZOR) have issued a demand to the Internet website hosting company WordPress to remove the website of the UK-based Ukraine Solidarity Campaign (USC).

Campaign organisers have been notified by WordPress’s legal department that they have received the demand from ROSKOMNADZOR to shut down the campaign’s website, following multiple successful appeals to raise money for urgent frontline, medical and transport aid.

The web hosting company confirmed to USC that it will not comply with the request. USC has been informed that while Russia has previously sought to close criminal activities online, this was a new initiative, and they had singled out the USC.  

The USC website is now blocked by the Russian Federation. However, the intervention by ROSKOMNADZOR demonstrates the determination of the Russian state to attack international organisations that support Ukraine.

Alex Sobel MP, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Ukraine, said: “Censorship in Putin’s Russia is the norm. He is trying to spread his autocratic tendencies far and wide. We not only need to resist them but ensure Russians can read and hear the truth about Putin’s murderous actions in Ukraine.”

 Mick Whelan, General Secretary of ASLEF, the train drivers’ union, an affiliate of the Ukraine Solidarity Campaign said it was the act of “a desperate despot seeking to hide his actions not only from his own people but the world. Deluded, as the world already knows and stands with Ukraine.”

Christopher Ford, USC Secretary said: “Russian hybrid war has sought to undermine popular support for Ukraine. Due to our campaigning, the Russia and Putin apologists have failed and the majority of the labour movement has stood by Ukraine. Now Russia wants to silence us, but they will fail and solidarity will win.”

John McDonnell MP, former Shadow Chancellor and a founder of the Ukraine Solidarity Campaign, said: “This is just another grubby attempt by Putin to prevent the Russian people from knowing the truth about Putin’s attack on Ukraine and the heroic resistance of the Ukrainian people.”

The organisers of the campaign remain determined to grow their activity and strongly condemn the use of such intimidatory tactics. They view the demand as another example of Russia’s continued censorship of online content and its increasingly authoritarian laws to control information. These actions have seen the country plummet in global rankings of Internet freedom. Russia scores just 21 out of 100 points according to Freedom House, down by yet another two points since 2022.

The Ukraine Solidarity Campaign, founded in 2014, exists to build solidarity and support for Ukraine across the UK labour movement and build links between trade unions in the two countries. Five national trade unions, including UNISON, NUM, UCU, PCS and ASLEF are affiliated to the campaign, as well as a number of local and regional branches. The campaign group has been organising fundraisers and the delivery of material aid, including medical equipment and vehicles to units staffed by trade unionists on the ground in Ukraine.