Editor’s Note: This feature separates Ukraine’s friends from its enemies. The Order of Yaroslav the Wise has been given since 1995 for distinguished service to the nation. It is named after the Kyivan Rus leader from 1019-1054, when the medieval empire reached its zenith. The Order of Lenin was the highest decoration bestowed by the Soviet Union, whose demise Russian President Vladimir Putin mourns. It is named after Vladimir Lenin, whose corpse still rots on the Kremlin’s Red Square, more than 100 years after the October Revolution he led.
Ukraine’s Friend of the Week – Yelena Grigoryeva
Russian pro-democracy activist Yelena Grigoryeva was murdered on July 20 in St. Petersburg.
While more broadly known as an advocate for LGBT rights, Grigoryeva had consistently protested against Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea and the Kremlin’s relentless war against Ukraine.
Her activism placed her in physical danger. Grigoryeva had been regularly threatened due to her political positions, human rights activist Dinar Idrisov said. Moreover, earlier this month, she had been included on an online hit list that called for open season on all LGBT activists.
Russia has a long litany of critics of dictator Vladimir Putin who have been murdered or died in suspicious circumstances. Many of them were supporters of Ukraine.
These include Boris Nemtsov, Alexander Litvinenko, Boris Berezovsky, Alexander Perepilichnyy, Sergei Magnitsky, Natalya Estemirova, Anna Politkovskaya and others. Now, Grigoryeva’s name has tragically been added to this list.
She will remain, however, a friend to Ukraine and a recipient of the Kyiv Post’s Order of Yaroslav the Wise.
Ukraine’s Foe of the Week – Savo Zwiyetinović
The Motor Sich aerospace company is constantly sparking controversy with its links to China and Russia. Now, law enforcement says it also has ties to Kremlin-backed militants in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.
The firm is being investigated for allegedly financing terrorism by making illicit payments to Russian-backed forces there.
Meanwhile, the aerospace company’s owners are also trying to sell a majority stake in company voting rights to investors from Beijing with close ties to the Chinese government and military.
What is perhaps even worse, though, is the fact that Motor Sich factories appear to have been shadily supplying the Russian armed forces.
On July 9, journalists in Ukraine published an investigation which appears to show that the company has been using proxy firms and a Bosnian middleman, to supply parts to the Russian military and its Federal Security Service, or FSB, in spite of Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine and a ban on such trade.
That intermediary in Bosnia has been named by investigative journalists as Savo Zwiyetinović.
He is allegedly a member of a Bosnian political party called the Union of Independent Socialists, which analysts and political scientists call an instrument firmly under Russia’s influence in the Balkans.
Zwiyetinović regularly travels to Russia as a representative of the “Society of Russian-Serbian Unity.”
If Motor Sich has been supplying engines or parts to the Russian military or FSB, in breach of sanctions, and if it has been paying or supplying Russian-backed fighters in the Donbas, then the company must be held fully accountable and feel the full force of Ukrainian law.
As for Zwiyetinović, who admits to acting as an intermediary between Motor Sich and its recipients in Russia, he is a foe to Ukraine, a friend to the Kremlin and receives this week’s Order of Lenin.
