Mirotvorets Kill List: West Left Its Own People to Mercy of Ukraine's Gestapo Website, Journo Says
16:07 GMT 19.09.2022 (Updated: 17:05 GMT 31.07.2023)
© Sputnik / Michelle Witte (Sputnik)
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Nearly a month has passed since the hideous murder of Russian journalist Darya Dugina, who was immediately marked as "liquidated" on Ukraine's Mirotvorets hit list. However, the western press remains numb about the crime, thus opening the door to new assaults, said Sonja van den Ende, a Dutch independent journalist also targeted by Mirotvorets.
"I was put on the Mirotvorets, so-called 'Peacekeeper', list in May 2022, after I came back from Kherson and attended a conference in Moscow about biological weapons laboratories in Ukraine," said van den Ende. "I was aware of it, but didn’t think too much of it until the terrible murder of Darya Dugina! I suppose my colleagues, foreign journalists, who are on the list as well, felt like me, very terrible about it."
Russian journalist Darya Dugina, daughter of Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin, was killed on the evening of August 20 in a car explosion on the Mozhaisk highway in Moscow's Odintsovo district. Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said that the Ukrainian intelligence services were behind the attack and revealed the identities of two members of Ukraine's sabotage group, Natalia Vovk and Bogdan Tsyganenko.
Prior to the bombing attack, Dugina was placed on Ukraine's Mirotvorets nationalist website, which publishes the personal data of journalists, politicians, opposition figures, bloggers, and even children, whom it unilaterally declares "enemies of Ukraine." Some of these individuals voiced opinions contradicting Kiev's official agenda; others covered Kiev's eight-year long war in Donbass or got accreditation in the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics. Following the murder, Dugina's entry was marked as "liquidated" on the notorious website.
Every time an individual on the list is killed, a "liquidated" inscription appears on his or her photograph on the website. Those murdered include Ukrainian publicist Oles Buzina and legislator Oleg Kalashnikov, Russian journalists Zemfira Suleimanova, Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin, Russian photojournalist Andrey Stenin, and Italian freelance photojournalist Andrea Rocchelli, to name but a few.
"I am now more careful, when, for instance, I leave my apartment I look around in the street," explained van den Ende. "When I go to sleep at night I watch the streets, if there are any unusual cars or people there. I avoid crowded places! But I will continue my reporting from the Donbass, it's now more than ever very important to report, apparently the truth is too bad for them, why else should they put people on kill lists? Because that’s what it is!"
Photos of slain Italian journalist Andrea Rocchelli were branded by Mirotvorets editors with Cyrillic text reading: "ликвидирован" - "liquidated."
West is Well-Aware of What Mirotvorets Do
Even though the western mainstream press and politicians are currently mute about the Mirotvorets, they have long been aware of the controversy surrounding the website, according to the Dutch journalist. The website was founded in December 2014 following the February coup in Ukraine and allegedly had links to the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs and other law enforcement agencies.
On January 26, 2022, British tabloid newspaper The Mirror called the Mirotvorets database "Orwellian": "Whether proven to be guilty or not, the online blacklist denounces those included as pro-Russian collaborators - with some then winding up dead," the newspaper noted, commenting on the addition of Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters to the list. Waters was listed by Mirotvorets as a "threat" to Ukraine for saying that Russia had more rights to Crimea than Kiev.
Moreover, in February 2021, the European Parliament urged Kiev to shut the Mirotvorets website down, van den Ende highlighted. At that time, European MEPs lambasted the website for illegally using personal data of hundreds of people, including journalists, politicians and members of minority groups. The MEP's resolution specifically accused Mirotvorets of extremism and inciting hate.
However, everything changed after the beginning of the Russian special operation to demilitarize and de-Nazify Ukraine. Since, the notorious hate-inciting website has become immune to criticism, according to van den Ende.
She noted that this phenomenon is strikingly similar to the mainstream coverage of Ukraine's neo-Nazis. Not long ago, European and US press openly chastised ultra-right nationalism and neo-Nazism in Ukraine, with Reuters reporting in March 2018 about a growing threat of "[Ukrainian] far-right vigilantes who are willing to use intimidation and even violence to advance their agendas, and who often do so with the tacit approval of law enforcement agencies."
However, after the beginning of Moscow's special operation, far-right elements and outright neo-Nazis including the infamous Azov* and Aidar battalions have been whitewashed as defenders of Ukraine while being used as western military proxies against Russia and the people of Donbass, the Dutch journalist argued.
UN, UNICEF: See No Evil, Hear No Evil?
Western and international institutions, including the UN, UNICEF, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International are doing virtually nothing about the Mirotvorets website, despite knowing that it places children on its kill list, van den Ende highlighted. She refers to 13-year-old Lugansk writer Faina Savenkova, who was blacklisted by Mirotvorets.
On June 1, 2021, Savenkova made a video appeal to the UN Security Council with a request to stop the war and help children in Donbass, for which the nationalist website published her personal data and her home address, social networks and relatives’ passport details. Since, Savenkova sent numerous open letters to international entities and world leaders as well as to Ukrainian President Zelensky, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, UNICEF and Amnesty International, asking them to bring a halt to Mirotvorets' violations and intimidation, but to no avail.
Guterres and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) have avoided references in public and did not change their behavior toward the neo-Nazi Ukrainian website targeting children, stated Russian Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dmitry Polyanskiy earlier this week.
"The secretary general carefully avoided references to this issue in public. As for UNICEF, it promised to hold a meeting between the relevant specialist of the Fund and Faina," Polyanskiy tweeted on September 14, adding that the meeting with UNICEF did not take place with the entity's representative only notifying Faina that a specialist is not able to meet her.
Nonetheless, the agency claimed that it had duly addressed this situation and met Faina, according to Polyanskiy. The Russian representative bemoaned the fact that even though Moscow’s mission in the UN immediately exposed the sham and shared the relevant information with Guterres and UNICEF, it received no reaction. In July, the Russian mission informed Guterres that 327 children have been listed on the Mirotvorets website so far as "enemies of Ukraine."
On September 15, UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell told a press briefing that UNICEF is aware about Ukraine’s extremist website Mirotvorets with its "enemies of Ukraine" list and is happy to provide more information on its position. According to Russell, the entity had concerns about all that is happening in Ukraine as a result of the current conflict.
23 October 2019, 20:09 GMT
Meanwhile, the Foundation to Battle Injustice notes that the analysis of the network protocol of the domain of the site Myrotvorets indicates that the resource uses the services of a technology company from California. "Thus, the United States has every opportunity to block an extremist website," the foundation explained, adding that despite the website violating human rights of journalists, children and opposition figures by exposing their data and location to potential assailants, "the United States does not take any measures to restrict its working."
"All the so-called humanitarian agencies, claiming they fight for human rights in western countries, like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are doing nothing against the fact that children, minors, have been put on this kill list. Why? Because these organizations are a tool of the EU and western countries," explained van den Ende.
The Dutch journalist noted that she is no longer feels safe after being placed on Ukraine's "Gestapo hit list". While western governments remain indifferent to the sufferings of Russians and Ukrainians placed on the website, they similarly ignore the fact that US, Canadian and European journalists working in Donbass have also been targeted by Mirotvorets and Ukraine's hit squads.
"To conclude I would like to say [that] by censoring journalists, the West is killing the truth and let their own people become the target of murders!" van den Ende emphasized.
*Azov Battalion is a terrorist organization banned in Russia.
