Ukraine's Commander-in-Chief meets with Ukrainian activist Sternenko

General Oleksandr Syrskyi, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, has met with representatives of the public and volunteers, including blogger, volunteer, and social activist Serhii Sternenko, who linked his being put on the wanted list by a military enlistment office to his criticism of the military leadership.

Source: General Staff of Armed Forces of Ukraine; Sternenko on X (Twitter)

Details: The meeting was reportedly held under the coordination and facilitation of Dmytro Lytvyn, the Ukrainian president's communications adviser. 

Volunteer Ihor Lachenkov, Liubov Shypovych, founder of the Dignitas charity foundation, and Liubov Halan, human rights activist and co-founder of the Community Organisation Principle, attended the meeting.

Quote: "We discussed a number of issues that are crucial for the functioning of all components of the Ukrainian defence forces. Starting from technological innovations implemented in the military to the current problems of consolidating society around the army. The participants agreed that such meetings are useful, as they provide an opportunity for constructive discussion."

Sternenko also said that he joined the meeting to discuss all the issues he had been ‘raising for a long time’".

Quote from Sternenko: "I raised the most pressing issues, such as the creation of an effective mechanism for changing service location (transfer), the need to assess commanders’ effectiveness in maximising the safety of personnel, and structural and organisational issues. Separately, I spoke about the further development of unmanned systems, including for air defence."

The General Staff said in a statement that the participants agreed that such meetings are useful, as they provide an opportunity for constructive discussion. 

"Such a practice will further help to neutralise the enemy's destructive influence on personnel and Ukrainian society," the General Staff noted.

Background: 

• Sternenko stated that he had been placed on the wanted list for failing to appear at the Prymorskyi Recruitment Centre in Odesa Oblast upon receiving a call-up notice, linking this to his criticism of the army system and calls for military reforms. He explained that the call-up notice had been sent to his old address, where he has not lived for a long time, and that he had entered his new address and all his recent data into the Reserve+ app (the official Ukrainian Defence Ministry app for conscripts, persons liable for military service and reservists). Moreover, there is no information about the activist being wanted in the Reserve+ system.
• The Odesa military recruitment centre has responded to say that they act "exclusively within the law" and stated that Sternenko failed to report several important details, including the fact that he had apparently already visited the Primorskyi Recruitment Centre, where he paid an administrative fine for breaching military registration rules, and that he had been referred to a military medical board.
• Sternenko accused Oleksandr Syrskyi, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, of personally instigating a Territorial Recruitment Centre hunt for him as revenge for criticising the military command system.

For reference: Sternenko is a prominent Ukrainian blogger, volunteer and public activist. In his videos, which get hundreds of millions of views, he denounces Russian propagandists and Ukrainian pro-Russian collaborators.

Sternenko has been accused of a variety of crimes, including kidnapping, rioting and assaulting a police officer, drug trafficking, and killing someone who attacked him. He denies all the charges.

In May 2021, the Odesa Court of Appeal overturned a verdict of robbery in a case in which Sternenko and Ruslan Demchuk were accused of kidnapping and torturing local parliamentarian Serhii Shcherbych in the spring of 2015, but Sternenko received a suspended sentence on a firearms charge.

The court closed the case against Sternenko in December 2023 after the statute of limitations for the 2018 incident expired. Subsequently, Sternenko was assaulted three times. On the second occasion, he apprehended the attacker. During the third incident, Sternenko was attacked by two professional athletes. He injured his assailants, one of whom died at the scene.

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