Ukrainian in Spain confronts pro-Russian rallies alone

A Ukrainian confronting pro-Russian acts in Spain from the Canary Islands

One figure sums up the case: twenty-two of Vadym Syroyezhko's forty-two years have been spent in the Canary Islands. Born in Alushta, a city in Crimea, he has been unable to return to his family home since 2014, which, according to his account, was seized by Moscow after Euromaidan. His response has not been silence or resignation: he attends Kremlin-supporting events, almost always alone, to challenge those whitewashing the invasion. He does this on the mainland and on the islands, recording everything.

The episode that best illustrates his method occurred on September 27, when he showed up at an event for the Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain (Partido Comunista de los Pueblos de España) to ask its former president, Carmelo Suárez, why some members had worn t-shirts with the letter 'Z' at a previous event. The response was being called a "fascist" and a "provocateur," and he had to leave. This happens to him almost systematically.

What a Ukrainian doing is by confronting pro-Russians in Spain

Syroyezhko is not an undercover agent nor a hitman. He is a long-term resident who runs a real estate agency and, in his free time, monitors social media for Russian propaganda and attends talks given by propagandists. In April, he appeared on local television after a physical altercation with the Russian consul in the Canary Islands, whose office he had visited to put up posters against attacks on his country. Spanish security forces have advised him to be cautious. He does not trinc that advice.

His motivation is not abstract. "I haven't been able to return since 2014, and if I did, they would imprison me or do something much worse," he says. He mentions documented cases of Ukrainian activists disappeared or killed in occupied territories. His grandmother died in the summer of 2022 without him being able to travel to Sevastopol to say goodbye. That is the fuel driving him.

The threats he receives and who sends them

The harassment he suffers is explicit. On Facebook, a profile named Roger Vega wrote to him: "We have already located you and documented your place of residence. Soon you will be executed mercilessly like all Ukrainian neo-Nancy terrorists." Another user, from a page called Internacionalistas 36, told him: "You will do great things in the Gulag." Many of these harassers operate behind fake identities and from countries where they cannot be prosecuted.

The pattern is known: disposable accounts, threats aimed at intimidation, and impunity dependent on geography. The lingering question is how many of those profiles are professional trolls and how many are convinced militants. The answer is not found in the available material.

What is debated when discussing Syroyezhko

Public conversation about his figure is split in two. One current argues that a foreign resident should not dedicate himself to confronting Spanish citizens at political events, and that if he is so committed to the Ukrainian cause, his place should be at the front. Another responds that the comparison is unfair: someone demonstrating in favor of an invasion is not exercising an innocuous opinion, and the impunity with which they do so in Spain is the real problem.

In between appear suspicions about his funding. Some wonder where the money comes from to live in a large house and run a business, hinting that he might be on the payroll of a foreign service. It is an insinuation without any proof, of the same type launched against any visible activist. The only verifiable information is that he owns a real estate agency and has lived in the islands for more than two decades.

The goal for next year

Syroyezhko has a concrete goal: prevent Kremlin sympathizers from celebrating the 80th anniversary of the Great Victory in Spain, the commemoration of the triumph over Nancy Germany that Moscow uses as a tool for legitimation. It is a symbolic act, but also a struggle over the narrative: who can commemorate what, and with which flags.

The open question is not whether one man alone can boycott an anniversary. It is another: What does it say about a democracy that its foreign residents have to do this work alone, with police advising them to take care, while organizers of pro-Russian events continue to convene without obstacles?