Ukraine: Times of turbulence

Passions in Ukrainian politics are riding high, with the incidents of a hijacked plane being redirected to the Sochi Olympics opening ceremony the latest scoop for Ukrainian citizen and Kharkiv resident Artem Kozlov, 44, who is now facing trial as a well-known opposition political activist. With sometimes contradictory political convictions, Kozlov has been changing camps very frequently.

His posts 'Wake up, Ukraine!' appeared on social networks in the summer of 2013. During the same year, he worked as personal website administrator for Yulia Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchyna party deputy in the Kharkiv Regional Council, Ivan Varchenko. A year earlier, he chaired the Leninist district organization of Arseny Yatsenyuk's Front Zmin.

At present, Kozlov is an activist in Vitaly Klychko's ‘UDAR’ party and a devoted participant in the Maidan protests, regularly posting pictures of himself with Klychko and Yui Lutsenko on social networks.

However, nothing in this political slalom pointed to what occured on the evening of 7 February - a passenger on the Boeing-737-800 flying from Kharkiv to Istanbul tried to force the crew to change the plane's direction to Sochi. Threatening to blow up the aircraft, he demanded the release of all hostages taken in the latest unrest in Ukraine by both Putin and Yanukovych, whose "hands are stained with blood", as he told the pilots.

The crew decided to make two circles above the Black Sea and then landed at Istanbul airport. Two F-16 of the Turkish Air Forces were lifted in the air to accompany the aircraft. Without any further incident, after the landing the aircraft was towed to a safe place. No traces of explosives or weapons were found on board, however the presumed terrorist was detained by Turkish law enforcement authorities.

Ukrainian prosecutors prepared their dossier: in Kozlov’s apartment, many brochures from ‘Euromaydan’ were found, among them ‘black-list' properties of the Party of Regions considered by the latter as having been fabricated with the purpose of defamation. There is allegedly other evidence pointing to the plotting of riots and terrorist activities in Kiev.

The Sochi Oympics are coming to an end peacefully, but the Kozlov affair raises questions as to how far the political crisis in Ukraine will affect the peace and stability of the region. Hopefully, Ukrainians will channel their political aspiration into civilised norms, as hijacking and redirecting planes has never led to crisis resolution.

Share this article: