Protest of the KKE and KNE at the Ukrainian Embassy in Athens

On 6 July 2023, a delegation of the KKE headed by MEP Lefteris Nikolaou-Alavanos, and members of KNE protested at the Ukrainian embassy in Athens and posted on its door a statement of protest regarding the constant death threats against the two young communists, Aleksander and Mikhail Kononovich.

The KKE’s statement of protest reads as follows:

“The Communist Party of Greece and the Communist Youth of Greece
warn for the threats against the lives of the young Ukrainian communists
Aleksander and Mikhail Kononovich

In the midst of the escalation of the imperialist war in Ukraine between NATO and Russia, following the latter's unacceptable invasion of Ukrainian territory, the Ukrainian security authorities arrested and tortured the young communist Kononovich brothers on trumped-up charges.

After a parody of a trial and while an unacceptable anti-communist legislative framework has been imposed on the country by the reactionary Ukrainian governments, the two young communists have been sentenced to "house arrest", continuing the unacceptable political persecution against them.

In addition, there are increasing public allegations that the two young communists are receiving constant death threats from representatives of the state security services. Thus, the location of their residence is being leaked, with the result that nationalist and fascist circles, active police officers, are calling for their assassination through various websites, promising impunity to anyone who will carry it out.

We denounce the unacceptable threats against the lives of our Ukrainian comrades before the Greek people and the world public opinion. The Ukrainian state and the Zelenskiy administration have the main responsibility for protecting the lives and ensuring the rights of the Kononovich brothers, who are unjustly persecuted and currently being targeted, with the result that their lives are put in danger while they remain in “house arrest”.

We demand that the Ukrainian government:

• Should provide immediate guarantees for the protection of the lives and the safeguarding of the rights of our comrades, the Kononovich brothers, and should stop the political persecution against them;
• Should intervene immediately to stop the unacceptable threats against their lives;
• Should give assurances that the democratic rights and freedoms of communists in the country will be respected.