March 2016: 2,000 people rally in support of Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko at Independence Square in Kyiv. (c) Sergei Chuzavkov / AP / Press Association Images. All rights reserved.Early last month, Anton Gerashschenko, MP and adviser to Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, used his Facebook page to announce the publication of a list of email addresses and personal phone numbers belonging to 7,000 (initially 4,000) media workers. These journalists were said to have “collaborated with the terrorists” following the outbreak of war in eastern Ukraine in 2014. Their crime? Obtaining journalistic accreditation from rebel authorities in the Donbas.
The website that hosted these leaks, Myrotvorets (“Peacemaker”), has long been an object of scrutiny by human rights activists in Ukraine. Since late 2014, the website, founded by former state officials and security service employees (SBU), has run an online database of personal data of people considered “enemies of Ukraine” — soldiers suspected of fighting on behalf of the separatists, participants in anti-Maidan rallies and public officials in the “People’s Republics”. Indeed, among Ukraine’s patriotic majority, the information collected by Myrotvorets volunteers is believed to be of great use to Ukraine’s security services, and the website enjoys tacit approval from the government.
