Myrotvorets or Mirotvorets (Ukrainian: Миротворець, pronounced[mɪroˈtwɔretsʲ]; lit.'Peacemaker') is a Ukrainian Kyiv-based[1][2][3] website that publishes a running list, and sometimes personal information, of people who are considered by authors of the website to be "enemies of Ukraine",[7] or, as the website itself states, "whose actions have signs of crimes against the national security of Ukraine, peace, human security, and the international law".[8] The website was launched in December 2014 by Ukrainian politician and activist Georgy Tuka.[9][10][11] The publishing of personal information on the site has been criticized by human rights organizations.[example needed]
The site reflects the work of NGO "Myrotvorets centre", led by a person only known with the alias "Roman Zaitsev",[12] former employee of LuhanskSecurity Service of Ukraine office.[13] In 2016, the Daily Beast reported that the website was curated by the government law-enforcement and intelligence agency Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).[14] In 2022, its founder, George Tuka, denied that the project is managed by the SBU or that it receives state funding.[12]
Although it has no official status, the website is regularly consulted at checkpoints to integrate government information systems.[12] According to Tuka, the site has led to the arrest of 1,000 people, since the site's launch, which he claimed included many collaborators and people working for the Federal Security Service that would otherwise not be in any government databases.[12]
The slogan of the centre's website and the centre itself is a Latin saying: Pro bono publico (for the public good).
Myrotvorets Centre began to develop the project in summer 2014, during the war in Donbas after a chance meeting between Tuka and "Roman Zaitsev".[12] The project was launched in December 2014 as part of the work of the volunteer group known as "Narodny Tyl".[10][16]
On 7 May 2016, the website published the personal data of 4,508 journalists and other media members from all over the world who had worked (or had received accreditation to work) on the war in the uncontrolled government territory of Donbas, and therefore were considered by the site to have cooperated with terrorists.[24][25][26] There were phone numbers, email addresses, and some countries and cities of residence of Ukrainian and foreign journalists received from the hacked database of Donetsk People's Republic Ministry of State Security; journalists and support staff provided these data to be accredited by the unrecognized Donetsk People's Republic. In response, the Security Service of Ukraine issued a statement that it found no violations of Ukrainian law by Myrotvorets.[27] According to Yulia Gorbunova, senior researcher for Human Rights Watch, the implications this list has for press freedoms is serious, adding that the existence of the list puts lives in danger.[12] The then President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko called the leak a "big mistake".[28]
Activity
Two Myrotvorets staff membersEmblem of Myrotvorets (used 2014 to 2022)
The "Myrotvorets" leader states that the centre's objective is to provide information and advice to the executive authorities, to finally bring peace and harmony in Ukraine. In its work the centre pays special attention to expressions of "separatist and terrorist activities" on the territory of Ukraine.[13]
"Myrotvorets" is also recognised by the courts of Ukraine when making decisions, according to rights group Uspishna Varta. According to them the data of the collected on the website is used in court decisions at all stages - from the beginning of the pre-trial investigation to the conviction of the person, and in numerous rulings, judges also accept information from the "Myrotvorets" as material evidence. The use of the website applies not only to criminal cases, but also to civil legal relations and factfinding acts.[29] As of 2019, data from the site was used in over 100 cases, according to Uspishna Varta.[28]
In October 2015, Herashchenko said on Facebook that a special section titled "Putin's crimes in Syria and the Middle East" dedicated to providing personal data of Russian military personnel involved in the operation in Syria will be added to Myrotvorets.[30][15] Myrotvorets' actions caused extremely strong reactions from the Russian presidential administration and among Russian experts in military affairs and special operations. As stated in the website InformNapalm, an important element of the operation was to compare the numbers of Su-24 from the Russian airbase "Shagol" and the same type of aircraft, overturned in Syria. A few days after the operation began, Russian TV started to hide the numbers of military aircraft based in Syria for their video shoots.[31][failed verification] After the information was published, the Investigative Committee of Russia launched criminal proceedings against Herashchenko for "public calls to terrorism."[15]
In February 2016, members of the centre took part in the operation of mobile groups against illegal transport of cargo through the line of armed conflict in the war in Donbas.[32]
Myrotvorets Centre repeatedly provided information on the participation of foreign nationals in the armed conflict, on the side of pro-Russian separatists. In early March 2016, due to the materials published by the centre, law enforcement authorities in Bulgaria initiated criminal proceedings against George Bliznakov, a Bulgarian citizen. Similar materials are being considered regarding other Bulgarian citizens.[33][34]
After the site published the data of various journalists, Valeriya Lutkovska, Ukrainian lawyer and Ombudswoman of Ukraine since April 2012, demanded both the website and the Centre be shut down.[35]
On 24 May 2016, Committee to Protect Journalists wrote an open letter to then Ukrainian President Poroshenko urging him to "condemn the unfounded and damaging allegations published on Myrotvorets, and to clarify publicly that the Ukrainian Interior Ministry is dedicated to protecting journalists and apprehending the people responsible for threatening them, in contrast to Interior Minister Avakov's previous statements".[36]
On 2 June 2016, G7 ambassadors to Kyiv released a joint statement expressing deep concern about disclosures of journalists' personal data on the Myrotvorets website and called on the Myrotvorets team to withdraw personal data from public access.[37] In 2017 Myrotvorets had a criminal case opened against it by the Ukrainian National Police, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) urged Ukraine to investigate the website's operations.[38][39]
Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the site started the "SeaKrime" initiative to track grain stolen from Ukraine and resold primarily through the port of Sevastopol.[40] This initiative was able to track 200,000 tons of stolen wheat from the Russian-occupied territories over the period of March and April 2022.[41] Based on the SeaKrime data, investigations by France Info and Le Monde were able to track some of the stolen grain to Syria after a ship was turned away from Egypt.[42][43]
People included to the list
According to the head of the centre, the number of people in the file has grown over time:
The most complete database contains residents of the Crimea.[13]
Myrotvorets has often blacklisted people over Crimean related issues, which usually means they cannot cross into Ukraine due to the site's usage in border entry checks. Gerhard Schröder was added after he said the Crimean annexation "a reality that must one day be recognised". Roger Waters was added when he said Russia has more rights to Crimea than Ukraine and blamed "extreme nationalists" in Ukraine for the war.[47]Silvio Berlusconi, Roy Jones Jr, and a number of Russian pop music stars were all added for visiting Crimea, which Ukraine calls an illegal border crossing.[28][48]
In April 2015, Myrotvorets published the home addresses of Ukrainian writer Oles Buzina[49] and former Verkhovna Rada parliamentarian Oleg Kalashnikov, just days before they were assassinated.[28]
On 12 September 2017 Myrotvorets added Yulia Tymoshenko (former Prime Minister of Ukraine and leader of the opposition party Batkivshchyna) to its database for "the illegal crossing of Ukraine's state border. An assault within a group of persons on border guards fulfilling their duties to protect the state border of Ukraine. Participation in preparations for the illegal crossing of Ukraine's border by a person without Ukrainian citizenship. Manipulation of socially important information".[50] On 15 April 2018, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's name was added to the website.[51]
In September 2018, Myrotvorets wrote on Facebook that their database included residents of Zakarpattia Oblast who had illegally taken out Hungarian citizenship.[52] After two weeks of work in Zakarpattia Oblast, the database held more than 300 names of Ukrainian officials and local councillors from the oblast who had Hungarian passports.[53] On 11 October 2018, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said: "It is a lie that the Ukrainian state has nothing to do with the website that is listing suspected dual Ukrainian-Hungarian nationals", and claimed that President Petro Poroshenko "gave his consent to the hate campaign in an attempt to increase his popularity".[54]
In November 2018 Myrotvorets added Gerhard Schröder, the former chancellor of Germany and chairman of the supervisory board of Russian company Rosneft, to its list because authors accused him of "anti-Ukrainian propaganda" and attempting to justify "Russian aggression against Ukraine."[55] A spokeswoman of the German Federal Foreign Office protested against this and asked the Ukrainian government to delete the website.[56]
The website published a list of Russian workers involved in the construction of the Kerch bridge. The bridge is a Russian project to connect the Crimean Peninsula to Russia.[57]
Following the beginning of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Myrotvorets added the names of Viktor Orbán (Prime Minister of Hungary) and Zoran Milanović (President of Croatia) in its list of "Enemies of Ukraine". Both had expressed pro-Russian views following the start of the invasion.[58][bettersourceneeded] On 27 May 2022, Myrotvorets added the former US State Secretary Henry Kissinger after Kissinger, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, suggested that fully antagonizing Russia threatens stability in Europe.[59] The site accused Kissinger of spreading "Russian-fascist propaganda" and acting as an "accomplice to the crimes of Russian authorities against Ukraine and its citizens."[60] In 2022, the site also added Oleksii Arestovych, an Adviser to the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine to its list.[61][62]
The Security Service of Ukraine or SBU is the law enforcement authority and main intelligence and security agency of the Ukrainian government, in the areas of counter-intelligence activity and combating organized crime and terrorism. The Constitution of Ukraine defines the SBU as a military formation, and its staff are considered military personnel with ranks. It is subordinated directly under the authority of the president of Ukraine. The SBU also operates its own special forces unit, the Alpha Group.
Berehove is a city in Zakarpattia Oblast, western Ukraine. It is situated near the border with Hungary.
Horlivka, also known as Gorlovka, is a city in Donetsk Oblast of Ukraine. Its population is 239,828.
Petro Oleksiyovych Poroshenko is a Ukrainian oligarch and politician who served as the fifth president of Ukraine from 2014 to 2019. Poroshenko served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2009 to 2010, and as the Minister of Trade and Economic Development in 2012. From 2007 until 2012, he headed the Council of Ukraine's National Bank. He was elected president on 25 May 2014, receiving 54.7% of the votes cast in the first round, thus winning outright and avoiding a run-off. During his presidency, Poroshenko led the country through the first phase of the war in Donbas, pushing the Russian separatist forces into the Donbas Region. He began the process of integration with the European Union by signing the European Union–Ukraine Association Agreement.
Ukraine was in 96th place out of 180 countries listed in the 2020 World Press Freedom Index, having returned to top 100 of this list for the first time since 2009, but dropped down one spot to 97th place in 2021, being characterized as being in a "difficult situation".
From the end of February 2014, demonstrations by Russian-backed, pro-Russian, and anti-government groups took place in major cities across the eastern and southern regions of Ukraine in the aftermath of the Euromaidan and the Revolution of Dignity, which resulted in the ousting of Russian-leaning President Viktor Yanukovych. The unrest, which was supported by Russian military and intelligence, belongs to the early stages of the Russo-Ukrainian War.
Pavel Yuryevich Gubarev is a Ukrainian-born Russian public figure, primarily known for his activities in Donbas in 2014.
The Luhansk People's Republic or Lugansk People's Republic is an internationally unrecognised republic of Russia in the occupied parts of eastern Ukraine's Luhansk Oblast, with its capital in Luhansk. The LPR was proclaimed by Russian-backed paramilitaries in 2014, and it initially operated as a breakaway state until it was annexed by Russia in 2022.
The governor of Luhansk Oblast is the head of the executive branch for the Luhansk Oblast. Due to the current Russo-Ukrainian War, the administration has been assigned as a civil–military administration since 5 March 2015. As a result, the governor of the Oblast is officially called Head of the Luhansk Regional Military–Civil Administration.
George Tuka is a Ukrainian politician and activist. From 29 April 2016 to 29 August 2019 Tuka was Deputy Minister for the temporarily occupied territories and internally displaced persons in the Groysman government. In 2015 and 2016 he was governor of Luhansk Oblast.
UKROP, short for the Ukrainian Association of Patriots, was a political party in Ukraine.
Tetiana Valerievna Popova is a Ukrainian politician. She was Deputy Minister of Information Policy of Ukraine from 4 February 2015 to August 2016, having previously served as adviser to the Ukrainian Minister of Defense from December 2014 to October 2015.
Ukrainian Choice, officially since 2016 named Ukrainian Choice – Right of the People, is an NGO in Ukraine. It was initiated by and is led by the business tycoon Viktor Medvedchuk. In Ukraine it is considered a pro-Russian organisation.
The Wagner Group, officially known as PMC Wagner is a Russian state-funded private military company (PMC) controlled until 2023 by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a former close ally of Russia's president Vladimir Putin. The Wagner Group has used infrastructure of the Russian Armed Forces. Evidence suggests that Wagner has been used as a proxy by the Russian government, allowing it to have plausible deniability for military operations abroad, and hiding the true casualties of Russia's foreign interventions.
Anton Yuriyovych Gerashchenko is a current official advisor and a former deputy minister at the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs. He is a former member of the Ukrainian parliament from 2014 to 2019, and was the subject of an assassination attempt in part because of his actions, which was prevented by the SBU.
This is a timeline of the war in Donbas for the year 2020.
The combatants of the war in Donbas included foreign and domestic forces.
Mykhailo Fedorovych Shpir is a Ukrainian journalist, blogger, political scientist. Since 22 September 2022 he has been Deputy Minister of Digital Development and Mass Communications of the Kherson Oblast by its Russian occupations.
Ruslan Petrovych Kotsaba is a Ukrainian journalist, activist, blogger and conscientious objector who has been described as a pro-Russian blogger by USA Today and as a prisoner of conscience by human rights organisations.
The Wagner Group, also known as PMC Wagner, a Russian paramilitary organization also described as a private military company (PMC), a network of mercenaries, and a de facto unit of the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) or Russia's military intelligence agency, the GRU, has conducted operations in Ukraine since early 2014.
↑ Портников, Виталий (9 June 2018). "Феномен "Миротворца"". Радио Свобода (in Russian). Radio Liberty. Retrieved 1 March 2021. Задача этого сайта - зафиксировать всех тех, кто был против Украины.
↑ Nemtsova, Anna (12 May 2016). "Ukraine Tries to Terrify Journalists Who Cover the War". The Daily Beast. Yekaterina Sergatskova, an anchor at Hramadske TV, felt frustrated: "Now they accuse us of 'helping the terrorists,'" she told The Daily Beast. "This is a project curated by the SBU and praised by Anton Geraschenko [at the Interior Ministry]
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