On Monday June 3, Socialist Equality Party members Max Boddy and Oscar Grenfell appeared on the Iron Fist and the Velvet Glove podcast to discuss the global campaign for the freedom of Ukrainian socialist Bogdan Syrotiuk.

The SEP representatives were asked a range of questions by the program’s host, Trevor Bell, in a discussion that lasted over an hour. Boddy and Grenfell explained that Syrotiuk’s arrest was a monstrous political frame-up.

He is being charged with high treason under the malicious claim that he is an agent of the Putin regime in Russia. In truth, Syrotiuk is the leader of the Young Guard of Bolshevik Leninists (YGBL), which fights to end the catastrophic Ukraine war from the standpoint of socialist internationalism. That includes a struggle to unite Ukrainian and Russian workers against the US-NATO proxy conflict and the Putin regime in Russia.

The interview highlighted that Syrotiuk’s arrest occurs at a time of the rapid danger of nuclear war posed by Washington’s ever more direct involvement in the Ukraine war. This includes the use of US supplied long-range missiles that can be used within Russian territory.

Boddy and Grenfell encouraged all those watching to join the fight for Syrotiuk’s freedom as part of the broader struggle to mobilise the working class to defend democratic rights and halt the reckless drive to a new world war.

The Iron Fist and the Velvet Glove podcast, which appears each week and covers a range of political and social questions, was streamed live across a number of social media and online platforms.