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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 22, 2024
Ukraine: Two Years after Moscow’s Full-Scale Invasion, Freedom House Calls on Democracies to Stand Firm in Their Support for a Ukrainian Victory
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By fighting for their own freedom, Ukrainians are protecting democracy in Europe and around the world.
WASHINGTON—In advance of the second anniversary of the Russian military’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Freedom House president Michael J. Abramowitz issued the following statement:
"Today we express our solidarity with the Ukrainian people as they continue to bravely defend their freedom and sovereignty against the Kremlin’s unprovoked aggression. We also pause to reflect on the human cost and unforgivable devastation of this war, for which Russian president Vladimir Putin and his henchmen must be held accountable. The Russian military’s deliberate attacks on population centers and critical infrastructure, its destruction of entire cities like Mariupol and Bakhmut, its predatory behavior toward civilians in occupied territories, and its systematic abduction of Ukrainian children are repugnant to freedom-loving people everywhere.
"This anniversary is a day for democratic governments to renew their commitment to a Ukrainian victory, on Ukraine’s terms, and to the flourishing of its democracy after the war. The people of Ukraine have not faltered in the face of authoritarian violence, and neither should Ukraine’s foreign partners, for whom the stakes are high regardless of their distance from the front lines. If the free world fails to stand resolutely with Ukraine in this moment, we will be forced to confront a stronger, more vicious Russian regime and an array of other hostile dictatorships that have been emboldened by our faltering response.
"Freedom House calls on policymakers to continue to supply Ukraine with much-needed military, humanitarian, and budgetary assistance. We also urge governments to seize frozen Russian assets—particularly in the United States
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and the European Union—and repurpose them to assist with Ukraine’s reconstruction. To hold Putin and associates like Belarusian dictator Alyaksandr Lukashenka
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accountable for their crimes, the international community should establish a special tribunal, and donors should sustain support for Ukrainian experts collecting evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
"Finally, we must help create the conditions for Ukraine’s people to defend and improve their democracy in the long term. Freedom House urges members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to build consensus on security guarantees in the region and ultimately extend an offer of membership to Ukraine. And as Ukraine begins its accession negotiations with the EU, democratic partners should continue to support the democratic reforms necessary for entry.
"Ukrainians are fighting for their lives, their sovereignty, their democracy, and their future. The outcome of this war will have consequences that span continents and generations. We must not abandon their cause, which is inseparable from our own."
Background:
On February 24, 2022, Russia’s authoritarian regime launched an unprovoked, illegal, full-scale invasion of Ukraine, in a dramatic escalation of its attempts to seize sovereign Ukrainian territory since 2014. Despite expectations that they would quickly overrun the country, Russian forces encountered fierce resistance and were ultimately compelled to retreat from northern Ukraine, leaving behind staggering evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the mass execution
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, torture
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, and rape
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of civilians by Russian military personnel and mercenaries.
After failing to seize Kyiv and other key cities in the north, the Russian military focused on consolidating its occupation of eastern and southern Ukraine. Russian forces had taken the strategic port city of Mariupol by May 2022, indiscriminately targeting civilians and reducing much of the city to ruins. The Ukrainian government estimates that 25,000 Ukrainians were killed in Mariupol
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, but according to the Associated Press, the death toll could be three times as high
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. In the fall of 2022, Ukrainian forces retook territory in the Kharkiv and Kherson Regions, including the city of Kherson in November. Although it had not captured any of these regions in their entirety, the Kremlin proceeded with illegal annexations
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of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia through sham referendums, which drew international condemnation
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.
As Russian forces continued to face frustration on the battlefield, they significantly increased long-range missile and drone strikes against civilians and civilian infrastructure throughout the country.
In June 2023, the Ukrainian military launched a hard-fought counteroffensive. The territorial gains from this effort were limited, but Ukrainian forces have continued to inflict massive damage on the Russian military machine, and drove Russia’s battered Black Sea Fleet to withdraw to the south and east. According to US secretary of state Antony Blinken, Kyiv has recaptured some 50 percent
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of the land that Moscow initially seized after February 2022. Casualties have mounted on both sides, and the Ukrainian government urgently requires additional ammunition and equipment to keep up the fight.
Russia was rated Not Free in Freedom in the World 2023
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, Not Free in Freedom on the Net 2023
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, and as a Consolidated Authoritarian Regime in Nations in Transit 2023
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. The Russian state is also one of the world’s worst perpetrators of transnational repression
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.
Ukraine was rated Partly Free in Freedom in the World 2023
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, Partly Free in Freedom on the Net 2023
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, and as a Transitional or Hybrid Regime in Nations in Transit 2023
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.
Crimea
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and Eastern Donbas
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, which are assessed separately as occupied territories in Freedom in the World, were rated Not Free in the 2023 edition.
Freedom House is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that works to create a world where all are free.
We inform the world about threats to freedom, mobilize global action, and support democracy’s defenders.
Copyright © 2023 Freedom House
All rights reserved.
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