Not knowing, and knowing: both options are terribly painful. The parents are now aware of the injustice surrounding their son’s imprisonment – and they spend their time wondering how he’s doing under harsh conditions.
“As parents, it’s obviously good to know that your child is alive,” said Oleksandr, a soft-spoken professor of science. “The English have a saying, ‘Of two evils, choose neither!’ … Both are tormenting. Both are bad in their own way.”
The love the pair have for each other after decades of marriage is evident – and the support they give each other through this ordeal is obvious. Oleksandr softly caresses Yevgenia’s hand as she speaks for the two of them.
Unlike many other couples I’ve interviewed in Ukraine, in which men frequently interrupt women during answers, Oleksandr makes a point of asking his wife whether she has something to say before answering any interview questions.
Their son, the prominent human rights activist Maksym Butkevych, went missing while fighting for the Ukrainian armed forces in the eastern part of the country last summer.
Even as a child, Maksym had been “obsessed with human freedom,” his mother remembers, recalling his first demonstration on Kyiv’s Independence Square at 12 years old – where he even delivered a speech.
“His heart is so very good. He put people in his heart,” said Tetiana Pechonchyk, a close friend. “Everyone from refugees and asylum seekers… [to] the people in Ukraine who suffer from human rights abuses or were beaten by police during demonstrations.”
Before the war, the 45 year old Maksym had been working for the No Borders Project, advocating for refugees and internally displaced peoples.
But after the full-scale invasion, he was mobilized to push back against the Russian threat, and assigned as the commander of a small unit. He was given weeks to get his troops trained, and they were fighting in the Kyiv region by April 2022.
In June, he told his parents that he had been sent to Donetsk, a region in the east of Ukraine. And that’s when he went dark.
Then a friend called in June to say that a Russian state-owned news agency had broadcast an interrogation video of Ukrainian prisoners that featured Maksym.
In Russian media, they saw their son referred to as a Nazi — the exact opposite of the kind of person he was. And because he was known as a prominent Ukrainian activist, they think he has been given a much more difficult time in detention.
“He himself helped hundreds of people escape the grip of authoritarianism in Belarus and Russia,” Yevgenia said. “So the moment they were able to reach him… [they wanted to] pay him back for his activities.”
Then a friend called in June to say that a Russian state-owned news agency had broadcast an interrogation video of Ukrainian prisoners that featured Maksym.
In Russian media, they saw their son referred to as a Nazi — the exact opposite of the kind of person he was. And because he was known as a prominent Ukrainian activist, they think he has been given a much more difficult time in detention.
“He himself helped hundreds of people escape the grip of authoritarianism in Belarus and Russia,” Yevgenia said. “So the moment they were able to reach him… [they wanted to] pay him back for his activities.”
In March, they found out that he’s being held in a temporary detention facility in Luhansk. The accusations against Maksym, and his sentence, were published that same day.
“If a year ago, somebody would tell me how everything’s going to escalate and the situation would develop, I wouldn’t want to know about it,” his mother said.
Maksym received 13 years of imprisonment in a totally falsified case run by illegitimate authorities in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine, Maksym’s friend and colleague Pechonchyk said. She added that the human rights lawyer was falsely accused of shooting at civilians in a “mock trial” that has since been condemned by Amnesty International, OpenDemocracy, and the Center for European Policy Analysis.
She had seen a video with Maksym reading a prepared statement, “his so-called confession,” in which Maksym appeared exhausted and thin. His parents say the process is a complete absurdity: he wasn’t even in Severodonetsk at the time the alleged crime occurred.
On Thursday President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that a prisoner swap had been initiated, resulting in 106 Ukrainian soldiers being freed from Russian captivity.
Maksym was not among them.
So for his parents and friends, the waiting – and the not knowing – continues.
***
Good morning to readers, Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands, and its population, though sleep-deprived and bleary, is eagerly awaiting the start of an expected counteroffensive.
The commander in chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, released a video on Telegram that many inside and outside of the country have interpreted to mean the operation is imminent. “[The] time has come to take back what is ours,” reads the post.
Here is Ross’ translation of the chants in the video:
Ukraine – mother homeland
God – our father in the heaven
Give us blessingsI will go destroy the enemies of my homeland
Kill my enemies
Let my hand be firm
To kill my enemies
Let my eyes be clear
To kill my enemies
Let my weapon be good
To kill my enemies
Let my week be steel
To kill my enemiesUkraine – mother homeland
God – our father in the heaven
Give us blessings.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian security official Oleksiy Danilov told the BBC that a counteroffensive could begin “tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, or in a week.”
Danilov also acknowledged that the operation would be a “historic opportunity,” and the political reality is that “we cannot lose.”
“It could happen tomorrow, the day after tomorrow or in a week,” Danilov said. “It would be weird if I were to name dates of the start of that or those events. That cannot be done… We have a very responsible task before our country. And we understand that we have no right to make a mistake.”
However, residents of the capital city suffered through yet another sleepless night.
My friend, the Ukrainian director Lubomir Levitski, shared this cartoon that illustrates perfectly how it is going to bed in Kyiv nowadays:
The strikes were one of the largest since the full-scale invasion began, and show that the Russian military is testing Ukrainian air defense by using both unconventional routes for its drones – launching them from unexpected directions and dispersing them in new ways.
The Russians are also trying to keep their drones flying as low as possible, and along riverbeds, Ukrainian officials announced Sunday.
Fires broke out in three Kyiv-area districts, with at least one person killed and three injured. Ukrainian Air Force Command indicates that 52 of 54 Iranian-made Shahed drones were downed by air defense.
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I spoke for a long time this week with Yevgenia and Oleksandr Butkevych. It was a sunny spring day and they sat on a park bench. I kneeled or sat cross-legged on the floor at various times, recording the interview, and Yevgenia (a retired librarian) very sweetly handed me an antibacterial wipe after we finished talking to clean my hands.
Kyiv is beautiful nowadays: the sleepless nights are followed by boisterous days, where the streets are crowded. Then everyone retreats into their homes and waits for the explosions
Today’s dog of war is Kali, who I saw outside a cafe as I was getting a morning coffee earlier this week with some friends.
Stay safe out there.
Best,
Tim
This story was written by The Counteroffensive with Tim Mak, which publishes regular intimate stories on the war in Ukraine, live from Kyiv. You can find more from The Counteroffensive by subscribing free or paid here.
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