Ukraine’s Two Wars: One Against Enemy, Other Against Defenders

… [W]ars are fought by the finest people… the closer you are to where they are fighting, the finer people you meet; but they are made, provoked and initiated by swine…

— Ernest Hemingway

 

Applying Hemingway’s statement to the current situation in Ukraine, we can say the following: “The lion’s share of the volunteers who, from the first days of the large-scale racist offensive, came to the defense of Ukraine as part of the Armed Forces, Main Intelligence Directorate, Special Operations Forces and volunteer territorial defense units, are the most wonderful people: true patriots who put the interests of Ukraine above their own. Instead, those who unreasonably persecute and pressurize them are the worst scoundrels.”

On February 25, 2022, 19-year-old Kyiv student Ilia Lortkipanidze took up arms and defended the capital by joining one of the volunteer formations. From February 28 to March 4, he took part in battles in Kyiv region, defending Hostomel, Irpin and Borodianka. By the way, one of the stories of the United News telethon clearly shows how volunteer Lortkipanidze captured an enemy Tiger armored vehicle.

Later, he participated in hostilities in Chernihiv region, particularly near the village of Nova Basan, where he managed to capture Russian ammunition as trophies — 7.62x39 and 9x18 cartridges (112 pieces in total), industrially manufactured high explosive rounds and an F-1 hand-held fragmentation grenade.

On April 17, 2022, Ilia Lortkipanidze returned home from Chernihiv region to Kyiv with the abovementioned trophies only to leave the next day with one of the military units to perform tasks in Zaporizhzhia area. By coincidence, in the morning of April 18, he was detained by Kyiv police allegedly for the illegal acquisition and storage of ammunition and explosive devices — those same trophies he had won in Chernihiv region. Volunteer Lortkipanidze explained in vain that he had not purchased the ammunition and explosive devices, but had seized them in a battle with the Russian occupiers and that he needed the ammunition to protect Ukraine — to perform combat missions on the battlefield with the enemy in Zaporizhzhia area.

Of course, due to his detention, Lortkipanidze did not go on combat missions either on April 18 or the next day. It was only in May 2022 that he managed to escape to the front line, where he took part in battles in Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv region. And now, as a soldier in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, 21-year-old Ilia continues to defend Ukraine on the front line.

But then — in April 2022 — police and prosecutors enthusiastically took up the investigation of the young volunteer’s “criminal” actions. And in July 2022, a six-member team of Kyiv police investigators and an even larger group of prosecutors (eleven of them!) successfully completed the investigation of the “horrendous crime” — they drew up an indictment on the commission of a crime by Ilia Lortkipanidze under Part 1 of Article 263 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine and sent it to the Sviatoshyn District Court of Kyiv. The grave crime charged by the investigators and prosecutors could have resulted in three to seven years of imprisonment for Lortkipanidze.

On February 14, 2023, the Sviatoshyn District Court of Kyiv considered the criminal proceedings against Ilia Lortkipanidze in open court and found him not guilty of the crime charged against him, given the lack of evidence of the crime in his actions. The court costs of conducting examinations in the criminal proceedings were borne by the state.

Disagreeing with the verdict of the court of first instance, the prosecutor of the Kyiv Specialized Prosecutor’s Office in the Military and Defense Sphere of the Central Region filed an appeal, requesting to cancel the acquittal and issue a new verdict that would find Ilia Lortkipanidze guilty of committing a crime under Part 1 of Article 263 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine and sentencing him to a three-year imprisonment.

On November 22, 2023, the panel of judges of the Judicial Chamber for Criminal Cases of the Kyiv Court of Appeal considered in open court the materials of the criminal proceedings on the prosecutor’s appeal against the abovementioned acquittal of the Sviatoshyn District Court of Kyiv.

The Court of Appeal concluded that the trial court’s verdict against Lortkipanidze was lawful, reasonable and motivated, and that there were no grounds to overturn it and impose a new verdict. The Court of Appeal ruled: “The prosecutor’s appeal shall be dismissed, and the verdict of the Sviatoshyn District Court of Kyiv of February 14, 2023 against I. Lortkipanidze, accused of committing a criminal offense under Part 1 of Article 263 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, shall be upheld.”

It would seem that the Court of Appeal has put an end to this situation, which is understandable in a state of war, and the acquittal has entered into force. The police investigators and prosecutors should have calmed down and allowed soldier Lortkipanidze to defend Ukraine on the front line in peace. It is not as if they went to war themselves, after all.

But it did not go as expected. On February 21, 2024, another prosecutor of the Kyiv Specialized Prosecutor’s Office in the Military and Defense Sphere of the Central Region filed a cassation appeal with the Supreme Court, challenging the decision of the Kyiv Court of Appeal of November 22, 2023 and asking to cancel it and schedule a new trial in the court of appeal.

To me, there is an obvious social paradox. On the one hand, we have a very young man, a true citizen of Ukraine, who from the first days of the full-scale Russian invasion voluntarily took up arms and stood up to defend his country. Let me emphasize: he went to war voluntarily, not being subject to mobilization under the law and being able to go about his business in peace. On the other hand, there is a whole crew of security forces who have been determined to imprison this young man, who may have committed a formal violation of the rules for handling ammunition.

However, what is the social danger of such a formal violation, which police investigators and prosecutors have jumped at? In a time of war, with the existence of Ukraine at stake, is it possible to approach its assessment in a formalized way, according to peacetime standards?

If law enforcement officers do not take into account the war and the real danger to the country, then with this approach to crime, they will soon begin to prosecute thousands of Kyiv residents who in February 2022, without the permission provided by law, received assault rifles from warehouses or cars in their yards and used them to defend the capital and in battles in Kyiv region. The actions of such citizens may also constitute a crime under Article 263 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, as they have illegally obtained, carried, stored and used these weapons from a formal legal point of view. So does that mean that now they also need to be afraid and wait, when the military situation improves, for police investigators and prosecutors to start coming to them in whole squads to create an impression of a massive work being done under the abovementioned article of the Criminal Code?

In the case of volunteer Lortkipanidze (which is not at all isolated and reflects the general trend of the current activities of the security forces), a fundamental question arises: is it an “excessive act” (by specific police officers and prosecutors) or is it state policy? Is the position of the state, which currently lacks the strength and means to effectively defend itself, consistent with the position of a prosecutor who seeks to imprison a young soldier at any cost, thus knocking him off the front line? Would soldier Ilia Lortkipanidze be able to fulfill his constitutional duty to defend his homeland from Russian invaders with arms in his hands if, despite the preposterous charge, he had been sentenced to imprisonment for the illegal handling of weapons?

Don’t the six police investigators and eleven prosecutors who “worked” on the indictment of Ilia Lortkipanidze in the spring and summer of 2022, as well as the prosecutors who filed the appeal and cassation appeals, realize that such actions do not encourage Ukrainian citizens to defend their country against the Russian aggressor and weaken our defense? What are they guided by when they try to knock out a motivated volunteer soldier from the front line: the usual fear that the court will recognize a “flaw” in their work (the adoption of an acquittal stating that there is no reason to hold a person criminally responsible) or deliberate disregard for those who took up arms to defend their homeland?

And one more thing: aren’t there too many military prosecutors involved in the investigation of this terrible “crime,” the absence of which was proven by the court? Perhaps it would be better to direct the efforts of those eleven military prosecutors “overburdened” by the investigation of the case of Ilia Lortkipanidze to solving crimes against Ukrainian citizens committed by Russian soldiers in Bucha, Hostomel, Borodianka or Chernihiv region, where Lortkipanidze “illegally purchased” enemy ammunition? Or do prosecutors and police officers still believe that the actions of our citizens, such as Lortkipanidze, are more dangerous than the war crimes of Russians?

So maybe these prosecutors and police should be sent to the front line, where they would see firsthand what it is like to “illegally purchase” enemy weapons?

In general, in the context of the problem with manning our combat units, which has been recognized at the highest state level, the issue of mobilizing the security forces, which, according to the new law on mobilization, have again received a reservation, needs serious consideration. After all, we are now talking about the survival of Ukraine as a sovereign state, and its fate is determined at the front.

There is a huge number of security forces in our country — about 100,000 police officers alone. By the way, the official determination of the real number of active police officers is unclear. For instance, according to the head of the National Police, Ivan Vyhivskyi, as of December 2023, there were about 100,000 active police officers in Ukraine (with a staff of 120,000 police officers, the shortage was 17,500). According to him, there is no tendency for staff outflow, as there was before the war; on the contrary, last year more than 13,000 police officers were hired.

And just last Friday, Minister of the Interior Ihor Klymenko said that 75,000 people are currently serving in the National Police (despite claiming in January of this year that “98,000 police officers are currently serving in the police”). Where have the 25,000 police officers gone in three months, if there is no trend of personnel outflow, but rather active recruitment to the police? Obviously, some kind of game with numbers is being played for a specific purpose.

The law enforcement agencies (National Police, Security Service, National Anti-Corruption Bureau, Economic Security Bureau, Prosecutor’s Office, etc.) are staffed by people who have mostly undergone appropriate physical and combat training, have taken an oath of allegiance to the Ukrainian people and have military or special ranks. The best, most trained and most devoted to the state cause were chosen through a competitive selection process. By their status, they are the power elite of the state with the highest level of legal awareness, responsibility and loyalty to the people. The level of their training, life and work experience cannot be compared to the experience of 19-year-old student Lortkipanidze, who, without any doubts or preparation, went into battle against the enemy in February 2022.

The mobilized security forces can be quickly formed into combat-ready brigades that can be sent to the front line almost immediately (or after a short training period) to replace units of soldiers who have been at the front for more than two years. I am deeply convinced that this will not significantly affect the performance of the most important official tasks by the security forces in the field and will not negatively affect the criminal activity in the country.

In addition, their absence from the agencies can be compensated for by veteran law enforcement officers who, for certain reasons, are not subject to mobilization but can be involved in the performance of relevant law enforcement functions. Of course, this will require some legislative changes, internal structural changes, personnel transfers, etc. However, the extraordinary situation in the country requires extraordinary solutions to ensure that every citizen is used as effectively as possible in the system of protecting the country and ensuring the functioning of the state.

For example, in Kyiv, in February – March 2022, police patrols were almost nowhere to be seen. And now they are already standing en masse on the central streets of the capital with speed measuring devices. In the current situation, is measuring speed on Lesia Ukrainka and Mykola Mikhnovskyi avenues a more important state task than defending the country in Kharkiv or Donbas? What about the involvement of law enforcement officers in performing functions that are not theirs, “nightmarizing” businesses, harassing volunteers, etc. — how should this be understood in a time of war?

Undoubtedly, one should never make a blanket assessment of law enforcement. Nonetheless, much of what they do today casts a shadow over the law enforcement system, causes irritation in society and is clearly inadequate for wartime conditions. It seems that law enforcement officers often deliberately look for work, imitate violent activity and resort to outright violations of the law in order to justify and preserve their reservations from mobilization.

At present, the law enforcement function (for all its extraordinary importance) must be carried out taking into account the fact that there is a war going on and the question of Ukraine’s existence as a sovereign state is being raised. Even the political leadership recognizes this.

The frontline test is the best competition for continuing service in law enforcement and a test of loyalty to the Ukrainian people. It should not be forgotten that a significant number of Ukrainian law enforcement officers who worked in the territory of Ukraine subsequently occupied by the enemy (including Donbas and Crimea) joined the occupiers.

At the same time, law enforcement officers should not be sent to the front line to punish them in such a way for violations or crimes, a practice that some law enforcement agencies have demonstratively resorted to (for example, for illegal surveillance of journalists, dishonesty, abuse of office, etc.) Not only does this demotivate and insult the volunteer defenders, but it also discredits these law enforcement agencies and negates the constitutional duty of every citizen to defend the homeland.

I am convinced that Ukraine’s defense capability can be significantly strengthened with the available resources, particularly by seriously involving its security forces in the direct defense of the state. We will have to come to this decision anyway. Hopefully, it won’t be too late.

Read this article in Ukrainian and russian.