On December 8, Syria marked the first anniversary of its liberation from the regime of Bashar al-Assad. A year ago, rebels entered Damascus, bringing an end to the authoritarian system that had held the country in an iron grip for two decades through repression and the backing of Moscow and Tehran.
In recent days, a Ukrainian civic delegation arrived in Syria. The purpose of the visit was to express solidarity with a country that has endured crimes by Russia similar to those experienced by Ukraine. This was reported Center for Civil Liberties on its Facebook page.
The delegation included Head of the Center for Civil Liberties Oleksandra Matviichuk, expert of the same organization and former prisoner of war Maksym Butkevych, Crimean Tatar activist Lenie Umerova, who also endured imprisonment, and journalist Nataliia Humeniuk, Head of the Public Interest Journalism Lab.
The Ukrainians visited Sednaya Prison — a site where the regime for years detained and tortured tens of thousands of people. They inspected mass burial sites, destroyed neighborhoods of the capital, and spoke with survivors of the prisons, as well as with victims of aerial bombardments and chemical attacks. Meetings were also held with representatives of the new Syrian authorities and the National Commission for Transitional Justice.
“I saw another dimension of evil, as well as a nation that refused to be broken,” Oleksandra Matviichuk shared. According to her, the scale of destruction cannot be conveyed through photographs: entire districts were erased from the face of the earth by Russian aviation.
She recalled in particular the city of Douma. There, Russian forces promised civilians a safe evacuation corridor but instead used chemical weapons. After the attack, individuals in protective suits arrived at the site and destroyed evidence.
“I saw another dimension of evil, as well as a nation that refused to be broken.”
“That is why Syrians hate Russia. And we understand where the Russians trained their skills in striking civilian populations,” Matviichuk concluded.
The visit of the Ukrainian delegation to Syria took place amid growing recognition of the shared experience of the two countries — both have faced Russian aggression and systematic crimes against civilian populations.
Photo: Nataliia Humeniuk and Oleksandra Matviichuk
