Two imperialist wars have challenged the international Left: the U.S. and Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Some have upheld the best traditions of the left, solidarity with the oppressed and their right to resist without exception, while others have fallen into the trap of selective solidarity, refusing to extend support to one of the two peoples. In the spirit of principled universalism, two Ukrainian leftists, Andriy Movchan and Nina Potarska, joined the Global Sumud Flotilla to Gaza. Here Tempest’s Ashley Smith interviews Andriy Movchan about their participation in the Flotilla and its significance for building solidarity between Ukrainians and Palestinians and their liberation struggles.

Ashley Smith: You just returned from the Global Sumud Flotilla. What were its goals? How did you come to join it? What did you aim to accomplish in participating?

Andriy Movchan:When the first flotilla set sail for Gaza in the autumn of 2025, I deeply regretted not being there. It seemed important to me that Ukraine – as a nation that is also experiencing occupation – should be represented in this movement. When I learned that a new flotilla was being prepared, I decided that I had to get there no matter what. In the end, we did it.

Besides our main goal – breaking the illegal Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, which is a blatant violation of international law – we had another objective: breaking through a wall of stereotypes.

First, we wanted to challenge stereotypes about Palestine in Ukraine, where Israeli propaganda enjoys an extremely strong position in the media and effectively holds a monopoly on “the truth.” By taking part as Ukrainian representatives, we wanted to provide an alternative point of view. Above all, we wanted to give Palestine a voice.

Second, we wanted to challenge a stereotype promoted internationally by Russian propaganda and the campist Left: the idea that all Ukrainians are ardent Zionists who enthusiastically support the crimes of Western imperialism in other parts of the world, and therefore deserve neither sympathy nor support in their own struggle against Russian aggression.

I think our participation called both of these stereotypes into question.

AS: You are Ukrainians, and your country like that of Palestinians has been under colonial war and occupation. Did that common experience drive you toward solidarity with Palestine? How is the Palestinian struggle perceived in Ukraine? What have been Zelensky’s policies toward Palestine? How have you challenged those? What are popular debates like? How have you advanced Palestine solidarity in Ukraine?

AM: The parallels with Ukraine’s fate are undoubtedly important to me. They give me additional motivation to support the Palestinian people’s struggle against occupation. And I am not alone in this. Within the European Network for Solidarity with Ukraine, which brings together a variety of left-wing organizations, this is also an important issue. All of its participants clearly understand the importance of supporting other oppressed peoples as well – that is the essence of our principled anti-campism. We rally under the slogan: “From Ukraine to Palestine, occupation is a crime!”

As for how the Palestinian issue is perceived in Ukraine, unfortunately we face significant difficulties. There are a whole set of objective factors that I believe are important to explain.

To begin with, in Western countries the pro-Palestinian movement has existed for decades. It is an integral part of the agenda and identity of the Left. In the Soviet Union, by contrast, there were no independent political movements – the state held a monopoly on politics. State propaganda supported Palestine, but by the 1970s society had already become highly skeptical of official propaganda. The phrase “crimes of Israeli militarism” had become a subject of jokes in late Soviet society, as a symbol of propagandistic exaggeration. After 1991, Palestine largely disappeared from public attention altogether. At the same time, genuine left-wing movements failed to develop in any of the post-Soviet countries.

In addition, Eastern Europe – Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine, Belarus, and western Russia – was the main historical homeland of Ashkenazi Jews. Some of the most tragic chapters of the Holocaust unfolded here. These countries also became major donors of migration to Israel, especially after 1989. Up to 20 percent of Israel’s population is Russian-speaking – roughly one in five Israelis. Almost every Ukrainian has friends, acquaintances, former classmates, or neighbors who moved there. People naturally tend to trust information coming from people they know and who are culturally close to them.

Demographic and linguistic factors create another problem. Israel has an extensive network of Russian-speaking journalists, political analysts, and military experts. Many of them hold strongly hawkish Zionist views. They are able to influence Ukrainian society directly, without any language barrier. Palestine possesses not even a tiny fraction of that influence. Our media space, when it comes to the Middle East, is effectively occupied by Zionist voices. They have been quite successful in shaping public opinion.

This is the paradox of the Ukrainian situation. It may be hard to believe, but – unlike in much of Europe – our government takes a far more balanced position on Palestine than the visible part of civil society (especially its right-wing and liberal segments). Ukraine officially recognizes the State of Palestine, and there is a Palestinian embassy in Kyiv not far from my parents’ home. Ukraine supports almost all pro-Palestinian resolutions at the United Nations, condemning illegal occupation and annexations. The position of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is based on a two-state solution and respect for international law.

I often see references to several statements made by Zelensky in 2022 and 2023, in which he said he wanted to turn Ukraine into a “big Israel.” These were very unfortunate remarks. However, it is important to understand that Zelensky is an entirely inexperienced politician with almost no knowledge of the history of the occupation of Palestine. Such ignorance does him no credit. These statements significantly undermined international support for Ukraine. Still, they do not reflect reality very well.

Relations between Ukraine and Israel are quite tense. Israel is not pleased with Ukraine’s orientation toward international law. Israel prefers to maintain neutral and businesslike relations with Russia. It long avoided condemning the annexation of Crimea, sold military technologies to Russia, did not impose sanctions in 2022, and provided practically no military aid to Ukraine. Israel imports 90 percent of its grain from Russia, including stolen grain from occupied Ukrainian territories (which almost led to sanctions from Ukraine and the European Union). Israel, together with Russia, frequently exploits the topic of “Nazism” in Ukraine. Netanyahu has openly boasted from the Knesset podium about close contacts with Putin. In short, relations between the two states are far from friendly.

It is also important to understand another key factor. In the context of the invasion, Ukraine is existentially dependent on military, economic, and diplomatic support from the European Union (EU) and the United States. Even if the government had the desire to more strongly criticize Israel, such criticism could jeopardize military supplies and endanger the lives of Ukrainian soldiers. Therefore, Kyiv’s criticism in these circumstances is unlikely to be stronger than the European average. In this context, influence on their governments through European protests becomes decisive.

Left-wing activists in Ukraine, while expressing support for Palestine, face not so much pressure from the state as from active pro-Zionist elements within civil society. This mostly takes the form of online harassment, defamation, and attempts to shape public opinion against us. Usually, these narratives boil down to the claim that supporting Palestine is effectively equivalent to supporting Russia. As you can imagine, in the context of an ongoing invasion, such accusations are very serious and dangerous. Nevertheless, even under these difficult conditions, Ukrainian leftists continue to organize pro-Palestinian campaigns.

AS: What was your experience on the Flotilla? What groups, participants, and events stood out?

AM: We did not begin our journey in Catalonia, but in Sicily – at the second stop of the flotilla. We spent more than a week in the city of Syracuse, where training sessions were held: the history of Palestine, psychological preparation, prevention of gender-based violence, legal aspects, interception simulations, and media training. It was a valuable experience. Overall, I was impressed by the level of organization of the flotilla.

We had the opportunity to meet people from many different countries – from Australia to Japan. The range of participants was also very diverse. They were not only left-wing activists. For example, most of the delegations from Turkey, Indonesia, and Malaysia were represented by Muslim organizations.

I was pleased to see the presence of Trotskyist organizations. For instance, Argentina and Brazil were represented by three different Trotskyist internationals. It is also interesting that there was an option for representation of stateless nations, which is why there were three delegations from the Spanish state – the Spanish, Basque, and Catalan ones. The Irish included Northern Ireland.

It is clear that European peoples with experience in national liberation struggles are significantly more sensitive to the Palestinian issue. In this sense, the participation of Ukrainians is also symbolic for me.

AS: The international Left has responded differently to the U.S. and Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza and Russia’s imperialist invasion of Ukraine. Almost everyone on the Left has organized solidarity with Gaza, but whole sections of it have balked against doing the same with Ukraine. Given this background, what was your experience, as Ukrainians, like with other activists on the Flotilla? Did they embrace Ukraine’s struggle for self-determination alongside that of Palestine’s? Did you have discussions and debates about these struggles and their relation to one another?

AM: Interestingly, I had expected to encounter a significant number of Stalinist or crypto-Stalinist organizations that are strongly hostile to Ukraine. However, my concerns turned out to be unfounded. In reality, there were practically no Stalinist elements present. I did not once come across any open apologetics for the Russian invasion or hostility toward us.

Moreover, to my deep surprise, we met many participants in the flotilla whose lives at different stages had been closely connected with Ukraine. These included journalists who had covered the war, paramedics and nurses who had treated civilians and soldiers in Ukraine, volunteers who had delivered humanitarian aid, and left-wing activists who, in their own countries, actively counter Russian propaganda. The number of such people was striking.

We recorded many messages to the Ukrainian public from these participants. We asked them to add the slogan “From Ukraine to Palestine, occupation is a crime!” at the end, and people readily agreed.

However, it should be said that the topic of Ukraine was raised only rarely there. And this is understandable. People whose governments effectively allow Israel to commit genocide feel it is their primary duty to protest against the actions of their own governments (ah, if only Russian leftists had a similar sense of consistency!).

There were also light campists – those who see Russia as a kind of counterweight to American imperialism that is important for maintaining global balance. They are clearly much less critical of Russia than I and other Ukrainians would prefer. But, again, I did not hear any endorsement of the invasion. Palestinians even referred several times to the widely recognized right of Ukrainians to armed resistance as an argument in favor of the legitimacy of their own armed struggle.

AS: Like all the boats on the Flotilla, yours was intercepted and you both were held by the Israeli authorities. We have all heard horror stories about the Israelis torturing and sexually assaulting detainees? How did they treat you? Did they say anything about you as Ukrainians?

AM: Our yacht, named “Eros,” was intercepted in the first group of 23 boats near the island of Crete. We had spent only four days at sea and did not expect interception so close to the coast of Greece. It came as a surprise to us.

We were taken to a prison ship, specially converted for members of the flotilla. How did I feel about it? It was mixed. At times, it was better than I had expected. It was clear that Israeli soldiers had orders not to kill or seriously injure us. And this is not surprising – the flotilla was under intense global media scrutiny and diplomatic attention. Most of us were citizens of European countries. Therefore, Israeli forces could not afford to return to our governments the maimed or dead bodies of their citizens.

On the other hand, I witnessed unprovoked violence and abuse. After being brought onto the prison ship, some people were beaten. We were forced to “kiss” the Israeli flag. Later, on the deck prison, soldiers entered with weapons pointed at us. They used stun grenades twice in a confined space. People were repeatedly forced to their knees, with their heads pressed to the floor. For a long time, everyone was locked inside containers with insufficient air, and were not allowed to go even to the toilet.

The next morning there was a mass beating of flotilla participants. People were taken out one by one to an unknown location. They were dragged by their clothes, women by their hair. Some were kicked, others had their heads slammed against the containers. One man, for no apparent reason, was shot in the leg with a rubber bullet. When I was taken into the container and forced face down on the floor, there was a pool of blood next to me.

It should be said, however, that the treatment of those intercepted later near the island of Cyprus was significantly worse. It seems the soldiers became more willing to act with brutality. The worst incidents apparently took place on land – at the port of Ashdod and in Ktzi’ot prison. Footage from the port spread across the international press and caused outrage among Western diplomats. Even the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs openly condemned the violence against flotilla participants.

AS: Since your release, what kind of report backs have you participated in? How have Ukrainians responded to your participation in the Flotilla? How have you used the trip to expand solidarity between Ukrainians and Palestinians and their respective solidarity movements?

AM: After my release, an unpleasant surprise for me was the fact that the Ukrainian press effectively ignored our participation in the flotilla. My colleague Nina Potarska and I are public figures. Our participation had been widely announced on social media. However, almost no one in Ukraine wrote about Ukrainians in the Gaza mission. It seems to me that this was a deliberate choice. Journalists did not know how to handle an “inconvenient” topic, how not to anger pro-Israel bloggers and influencers. In other words, there was clearly both censorship and self-censorship.

Here, incidentally, a contradiction that I mentioned earlier becomes visible. After the torture in Ashdod, the Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs expressed a protest. Paradoxically, the Ukrainian government is more willing to criticize Israel than the press and civil society. One can imagine how much work still lies ahead of us, starting with basic education on the Palestinian issue.

At the same time, alongside hostility from pro-Zionist groups and individuals, we received a great deal of support from Ukrainians who stand with Palestine. For people who had previously imagined themselves alone in their views, we became their representatives – their voice. For them, it felt like a breath of fresh air. These included some students, some international observers, some soldiers, some Ukrainian Muslims, some Ukrainians in the diaspora – very different circles. It felt as if we had finally found each other.

We have done only a tiny part of what still needs to be done. But I am convinced that our participation was extremely important both for the Palestinian movement and for Ukrainian society. It is an expression of genuine internationalism – across borders and military-political blocs. This is what inspires and gives hope for a more just world.

This piece first appeared in Tempest.