In the three years since she began publishing texts about her life as a child in the midst of the war in Donbass, Faina Savenkova has often met with indifference from the international and Western institutions that so extol the principles of democracy and human rights. But now indifference has given way to more radical measures against anyone who dares to give her a voice. Both in Ukraine and in the West, it seems that the authorities are afraid of what a 14-year-old girl might say about their respective crimes, going so far as to threaten and censor both Faina Savenkova and all those who try to help her break the information blockade of the Donbass.
As our regular readers know, Faina Savenkova has been listed on the Ukrainian neo-Nazi website Mirotvorets (a kind of digital Gestapo 2.0) since she was 12 years old. This site lists the “enemies of Ukraine”, and is in fact a list of people to be eliminated. Incidentally, in 2016 this site put out a contract on the head of British journalist Graham Phillips, and several of the people listed were murdered after their personal details were published (including Oles Bouzina, Daria Douguina, Vladlen Tatarski and many others), after which they are marked on Mirotvorets as ‘liquidated’. With all this, it’s hard to argue that this site isn’t a “kill-list”, as trolls and staunch supporters of Ukraine are.
Why did Faina Savenkova end up on such a website? Simply for telling the truth, namely that the Ukrainian army has been deliberately shelling civilians in the Donbass since 2014, causing many deaths, including among children, and that she has called for an end to the war. This is what justifies to the Ukrainian neo-Nazis who run this site publishing the personal details of a 12-year-old child, exposing her to threats and assassination attempts! I would also like to point out that she is not alone and that over 300 children are listed on Mirotvorets, in violation of national and international law. It’s an unacceptable situation, but one that doesn’t seem to be alarming the UN or UNICEF any more than it is.
But where it gets really crazy is when the threat of being listed on Mirotvorets is extended to anyone who interacts with Faina Savenkova. Writer and publisher Guy Boulianne, British journalist Johnny Miller and Mira Terada were added to the Mirotvorets site’s list of ‘enemies of Ukraine’ just after doing an interview with Faina Savenkova! You’d have to think that Ukraine is scared to death of what this teenager has to say to threaten anyone who gives her a chance to speak!
And when threats aren’t enough to keep people quiet, Ukraine can count on the support of the West to use another weapon: censorship. Faina Savenkova’s interviews with Mike Jones and Lori Spencer of Maverick News resulted in the latter losing their YouTube channel altogether.
One more proof of how the West is in reality treating “Freedom of expression”. Now it’s afraid of the evidence of a 14-years old teenager from Lugansk @FainaSavenkova
“YouTube has censored a second journalist for an interview with 14-year-old girl Faina Savenkova from Luhansk.…
— Dmitry Polyanskiy 🇺🇳 (@Dpol_un) September 23, 2023
The latest victim of this censorship is Italian journalist Vincenzo Lorusso, who has also lost his YouTube channel simply for publishing Faina Savenkova’s appeal to the mayor of Milan concerning the photo exhibition dedicated to the Ukrainian neo-Nazi Azov regiment!
Our Donbass Insider channel itself suffered several acts of censorship by YouTube during the battle of Marioupol, simply because our reports from the field relayed the testimonies of the town’s inhabitants about the war crimes of Azov and Ukrainian soldiers in general. It seems that in the West it is forbidden to tell the truth about the openly neo-Nazi ideology of the Azov regiment, and even worse to talk about their crimes.
The West and its Ukrainian puppet, who pride themselves on being examples of democracy and freedom of expression, censor and threaten a teenager from the Donbass region or anyone who speaks out against her, because they are so terrified by what Faina Savenkova has to say. Their narrative must be very fragile and not hold up for more than two seconds in the face of the facts, for governments to tremble like this in the face of the shadow of a 14-year-old girl!
Translation Яннис В.Зброек for Donbass Insider