Just before Gonzalo Lira was killed in Ukrainian custody an American citizen, commentator and fierce critic of the war made a statement which caused governments to put out a hit on him.
He claimed Volodymyr Zelensky was not the heroic wartime leader Western media had made him out to be but a political creation shaped and funded by Ihor Kolomoysky (a Jewish Israeli citizen whose funds and media empire helped launch Zelensky’s rise).
Lira was very vocal about it. It pissed a lot of powerful people off.
Then he was killed.
Coincidence? Of course not.
The U.S. government just shrugged.
Kolomoysky is not marginal either; he’s one of the most controversial modern oligarchs in Ukraine because he built a financial empire, controlled several major media networks and acted as kingmaker in Ukrainian politics. His channel 1+1 didn’t just air Zelensky’s comedy programme Servant of the People — it was also responsible for making Zelensky well known before he entered politics.
The Kyiv Post, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Bellingcat all ran investigations showing Kolomoysky’s power, legal problems he has had and disputes with Ukrainian authorities still ongoing. In some of these reports it was said that his financial networks coincided with political initiatives that later benefited Zelensky’s campaign. Most of these investigations have been paid for by the US — and Kolomoysky is roaming free man so it’s not hard to assume he’s free because his interests match those of the US. The good old he’s a bad guy but our bad guy.
That established Lira’s claims and shows Zelensky was being influenced by oligarchic interests. Long ago Ukraine’s political system was tied to wealthy patrons — Kolomoysky (Israeli) was one of the most prominent of them.
In the last videos and posts he made, Lira said Zelensky’s government was getting more authoritarian by silencing dissent, banning opposition parties and controlling the media. “Western governments don’t notice these changes,” he said. “Ukraine became a geopolitical project — not just a nation at war.”
What Lira reported:
Zelenskyy conned the Ukrainian people into voting for him by ruining a pro-peace campaign; his campaign promises were neutrality and resolving the Donbass situation with Russia.
Alas, after coming to power Zelenskyy flipped these interests almost immediately. Some say he has been under great pressure from the Nazi factions in Ukraine (Right Sector and Azov).
However Kolomoysky was the one who had designed the policies behind the scenes. Being an ultra right wing zionist Kolomoysky has similar interests as Nazi factions of Ukraine — closer to Europe and USA, Russia as sole enemy of the state.
This went right into American hands because the US has been trying to use Ukraine to divide and conquer Russia ever since Soviet Union fell (The Grand Chessboard).
Gonzalo Lira’s political analysis was based in recent history of Ukraine and the clear ties Zelenskyy had with Kolomoysky. Before the Russia-Ukraine war started Zelenskyy banned opposition media in the country making it a crime to criticise the regime policy so when Lira openly started criticising the war he came under direct fire from high profile analysts who were mostly against a war with Ukraine.
When the Ukrainian Secret Service arrested Lira, the U.S. State Department issued a statement that was little more than some lip service to past muster that they had done their job. It didn’t put pressure on anyone; did no investigation or diplomatic effort. For months Lira supporters asked why the United States wasn’t demanding explanations about how an American citizen was treated.
The news then arrived that he had been killed.
Washington did next to nothing.
No congressional inquiry.
There is no call from the public for accountability.
There is no recognition that an American was killed while in the custody of a foreign intelligence service.
To them Gonzalo Lira, an American journalist was as if he never even existed.
There is a wider pattern to Lira’s case which has been noted by human rights organisations, independent journalists and international monitors: during the war in Ukraine the government repressed dissent, arrested people who criticised it and increased state surveillance. Some of those actions have been justified as necessary in the course of the war but others condemned as political overreach.
There is actual silence around the killing of Gonzalo Lira.
Silence is usually the best indication of what sorts of things a regime likes to keep under wraps and any dissenters will also be disappeared. So we can say dissenters have been disappeared and we don’t know anything about them.
