Freedom for Elena Berezhnaya: A victory that does not erase the shadows on democracy and human rights in Ukraine
The dissident was released from Ukrainian prisons after months of controversial detention. Lawyer Scifo: "Today is worth celebrating, but the alarm remains over respect for fundamental freedoms". The release of Elena Berezhnaya, a Ukrainian intellectual and activist known for her criticism of the government in Kyiv, is news that brings relief but at the same time raises disturbing questions about the stability of democracy and respect for human rights in Ukraine.
After months of detention in conditions described by many international observers as “arbitrary and politically motivated,” Berezhnaya has finally been released. Her crime? Having expressed positions that did not align with the dominant discourse, in a context increasingly marked by polarization and repression of dissent.
“Her release is an important achievement,” said lawyer Scifo, one of the protagonists of the dissident’s international defense. “We are very satisfied with the work done together with ALU and our Swiss, Italian, Ukrainian and Russian friends. Today is one of those days when it is truly worth celebrating for freedom and for the protection of human rights.”
But satisfaction at the end of her detention cannot make us forget the conditions in which it occurred. Elena Berezhnaya is just one face of a silent repression that has hit dozens of journalists, academics and activists guilty of exercising critical thinking . Her case, strongly denounced by European humanitarian organizations and the United Nations, has raised questions about the ways in which Ukraine, even in the midst of an existential conflict with Russia, is managing internal dissent.
The rhetoric of war cannot and must not become a justification for the suspension of civil liberties. The principle of legality and the protection of human rights remain at the heart of any state that wants to call itself democratic, even, and perhaps especially, in times of crisis.
If Berezhnaja's release from prison offers a moment of relief, even more disturbing is the deafening emptiness with which the main European and Western institutions have accompanied her detention . From Brussels to Strasbourg, from Berlin to Rome, the prevailing attitude has been one of embarrassing silence, or worse, passive complicity.
Ukraine is witnessing a dangerous weakening of the basic principles of the rule of law . Peace activists, political opponents, independent journalists, even scholars: more and more voices are being repressed, censored or criminalized in Ukraine . And fewer and fewer in Europe dare to publicly denounce it.
Democratic coherence today seems to be sacrificed on the altar of geopolitics. Freedom of expression, a founding value of the European Union, is ignored when repression is carried out by an “allied” government. It is a dangerous slope. Because Europe’s moral credibility is based not only on its economic or military strength, but on its ability to remain faithful to the values it professes: human rights, pluralism, justice.
Where are the voices of the European institutions today? Where are the warnings, resolutions, condemnations that are never lacking when similar abuses occur in hostile regimes? Why does Ukraine, in the name of war, seem to be able to suspend any critical scrutiny with impunity?
The European Union should urgently question this double standard, before it becomes structural. The fight for freedom cannot be one-way . Defending Kyiv cannot mean accepting that, in the meantime, every form of internal opposition or peaceful dissent is dismantled. If the price of solidarity is silence on injustices, then the very idea of Europe risks being shattered .
As we celebrate this day of victory for justice, we must keep our guard up. Democracy is not defended only with weapons: it is defended, every day, also with freedom of speech, with the right to dissent, with the courage to denounce.
And in this sense, the Berezhnaya case is not closed: it is a warning.
Andrea Caldart
