Tomasz PIECHAL: “The future of Ukrainians depends on themselves only”

Eastbook journalist Tomasz PIECHAL was on the Euromaidan almost from beginning to end. He was also there when attempts were made to break up the rally. When the revolutionary wave swept over all the regions, Piechal traveled throughout Ukraine to see everything with his own eyes. Later, on his way to Donetsk, he had his shoes stolen in the train. He knows the situation very well from outside and inside and is one of the few foreign journalists who have command of the Ukrainian language, for he studied in Lviv for several years. Piechal and we discussed the problems of the Ukrainian-European information space. He also told The Day about the impression the Maidan made on him, the kidnapping of journalist Serhii Lefter (who has, luckily, been found), and his own belief in Ukraine.

“I KNEW IT WAS SOMETHING MORE THAN JUST ANOTHER PROTEST ACTION”

“I came to know about the Euromaidan when I was in Barcelona. Instead of feasting my eyes on the city, I switched on the computer and began to read the Maidan news,” the journalist said. “As a result, I decided that I would travel to Ukraine immediately after coming back to Poland. I arrived in Lviv by bus on November 27. The first Euromaidan I saw was in Lviv near the Shevchenko monument. Even at that time, I could see unusual resoluteness in people’s eyes, and I knew it was something more than just another protest action which Ukraine has seen a lot in the past few years.

“I circled around the city, spoke to various people in Lviv, and went to see a march of flag-waving students. I was in a joyous mood, especially when I reached a stage on which there was a real rock concert. Next to the stage, I saw two stray dogs playing with a thrown-out glove. They were running around, trying to snatch the glove from one another. I jokingly commented out loud on this, turning to the people who looked on. ‘Which of the dogs do you think is Russia and the European Union?” I asked. The people burst out laughing and said the uglier one was Russia – it even looked like Putin. In spite of this, the concert went on in the background. A splendid view!”

“AFTER RECEIVING A FEW BLOWS, I MANAGED TO RUN AWAY”

“I arrived in Kyiv on the morning of November 29. I had a few meetings, watched the mood of people, and came to Independence Square in the evening. Politicians began to make speeches, but there was a clearly depressive atmosphere. Nobody knew what to do. Yanukovych had already announced that he would sign nothing. People began to walk away, leaving behind a few hundred, not more than 1,500, on the square. As I understood, most of them had come from Lviv. Among them was my close friend Serhii Lefter, a First National TV channel journalist at the time. We walked, talking to the people, and Serhii said at about 11 p.m. that he had a hunch that the Maidan would be broken up at about 3 or 4 a.m. I told him not to speak, let alone think, about this, for this seemed absurd to me. As it turned out later, he was right. We stood by the stele, and when the Berkut riot police moved down Instytutska St., we quickly understood that they would beat people and we had to save ourselves. But the only way to escape was to surmount a fence and go through a file of policemen. When they showered the first blows, I cried out to Serhii that we must run away, split, and then meet at Macdonald’s on Khreshchatyk. I rushed to the policemen and received a few blows, but I managed to run away. Once I was safe, I began to help the injured and met Serhii later.

“After those events, when he saw that his TV channel was applying censorship and lying about the Maidan, he talked his colleagues into quitting. He did so because he thought he was obliged to do something. It is his trait – he cannot stand aside when something is happening. Therefore, some time later he began to freelance all over Ukraine and finally found himself in Sloviansk, where separatist took him prisoner. Thank God, he is free now.

“The Maidan taught me to believe in people and their strength. I saw tremendous solidarity, willingness to help each other, activeness, and self-organization. The Ukrainian revolution is, on the one hand, an excellent experience, a host of interesting contacts with unconventional people, and a great belief in ordinary people. But, on the other hand, it is a tremendous sorrow and terror over the horrible days and nights when blood was shed and people were dying. The former is inseparable from the latter, and the two of them create an impression which my memory still cannot cope with. I just don’t know how to place all this in my mind – all these chaotic reminiscences full of various great, extremely important, and heavily oppressive emotions and conditions.

“Yet I believe and hope that the Ukrainians will be able to draw their strength and confidence from these events and shape their destiny on their own. Now that the new government is showing its powerlessness and the Russians are doing what they please, the future of Ukrainians depends on themselves only. Only your mass-scale resistance can hinder Russia. I hope the Maidan, which has inspired the Ukrainians before, will also help them further on.”

“THE RUSSIA-PAID CYBER BULLIES ARE VERY ACTIVE IN POLAND”

“The Ukraine events have been receiving extremely wide coverage in the Polish media since the Ukrainian revolution began. All the TV information channels broadcast news about and comments on Ukraine from morning till night. The same applies to Internet portals, where Ukraine has in fact been the No.1 subject in the past five months. At first, the problem of many Polish journalists was that they were not prepared to speak about Ukraine, as they evidently did not know the political situation. The language was also a problem. But, in the course of time, changes took place – publishers and journalists ceased to be guided by Russian news agencies as reliable sources of information and began to seek contacts on their own. An important role in improving the performance of Polish journalists was played by such independent TV channels as Gromadske.tv and Espreso.tv, as well as the Euromaidan Facebook page. On the whole, Twitter and Facebook began to play the main part, and the Ukrainians took a very professional approach to these instruments which have certainly helped Poland shape a proper image of Ukraine.

“But this does not change the fact that Russia is also active in Poland – what caused quite a stir was exposure of a Russia-guided cyber attack on Polish debate forums or article comments. It became clear that those were hired ‘cyber bullies’ who commented – sometimes in broken, sometimes in good Polish – on the forum articles from an anti-Ukrainian angle. First of all, emphasis was put on the ‘fascist’ roots of the revolution, which I, of course, consider nonsense. But the Polish usually associate Ukrainian nationalism with the Volyn tragedy, and all references to the UPA have a negative connotation in Poland. As the Ukrainians do not know the UPA’s black pages, so the Poles do not know facts other than the abovementioned Volyn tragedy.

“The Russian cyber attack was quite effective, and it took some time, especially on the part of journalists, to make a large part of the Poles understand that the information war was raging even in our country and many commentaries were simply paid for. Now that the crisis in eastern Ukraine is still on, the Ukraine issue is still topical, and a lot of information comes in daily from Ukraine.”

“PASSIVITY WILL ONLY ENCOURAGE RUSSIA’S FURTHER EXPANSIONISM”

“Many Poles cannot understand, however, why the Ukrainian authorities are inactive and why Ukraine is giving away its regions so easily. Yet it is quite clear to me why the Crimea and Donbas issue has not stirred up mass-scale indignation in Ukrainian society weary of the revolution. I am fearful of Russia’s next steps. Obviously, Crimea and the Donbas is not the end of this. This is why it is so important that the Ukrainians take the matter into their own hands. Only mass-scale (I underline, mass-scale) pro-Ukrainian demonstrations in Kherson, Zaporizhia, Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa, and Kharkiv can knock arguments out of Russia. The Ukrainians cannot afford to be intimidated now and must remember that it is ordinary people, not politicians, who won a victory in the Kyiv revolution. Passivity will only encourage Russia’s further expansionism.”