A former Syrian war detainee says Ukraine shouldn't rely on the West and that sanctions can only do so much

• Millions of Ukrainians are fleeing to nearby countries as Russia's invasion enters its third week.
• Russia also played a role in the Syrian revolution that bolstered Bashar al-Assad's regime. 
• A Syrian activist told Insider that Ukrainians should not rely heavily on the West to help them. 

A Syrian activist who was detained four times at the start of the Syrian revolution said Ukrainians should not put all their hope in the West to rescue them. 

"We trusted the West a lot. We saw some of the Western diplomats go with us to demonstrations back in 2011, but when Russia came into the picture everyone just became a mere like loud voice of nothing," Karam Alhamad, a human rights activist, told Insider. 

Alhamad was studying engineering in Syria when the civil war broke out in 2011. He decided to get involved as a photojournalist by documenting images of bombings and families fleeing.

He would be detained four times in the first years of the revolution by the Assad regime and eventually left Syria for Turkey, then Germany, before heading to the US.

Alhamad knows the impact of Russian interference well, as it played a role in the ongoing crisis in Syria for years. Russia bolstered Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime and helped foment the use of chemical weapons against civilians in the country. 

Alhamad told Insider that at the beginning of the revolution, citizens had hope that al-Assad would be overthrown in two months and were encouraged by words of support from Western diplomats. 

That hope diminished as Western nations failed to intervene in impactful ways. Alhamad told Insider that sanctions against the Syrian regime were not enough to stop Russian and Syrian aggression towards civilians. Western nations stalled and failed to implement a no-fly zone. However, the US did create deconfliction zones between US and Russian militaries in eastern areas of Syria as the US  fought against ISIS.

Alhamad drew parallels between that aspect of the response to Russia's intervention in the Syrian revolution to what their army is doing now in Ukraine. 

The only country that learned from Russia's involvement in Syria is Russia, he said.

"Putin has learned from Syria more than the West. Russian soldiers have committed large amounts of war crimes in Syria, killing lots of children and females and families and what they got as a response from the West was nothing, aside from sanctions against Assad and his family and the government," Alhamad said. 

Ukrainians should continue to document the atrocities happening during this invasion as they flee and seek refuge in neighboring countries, he advised. Alhamad also advises them to keep an eye on other injustices happening during the crisis, noting reports that non-Ukrainians attempting to flee the country have been turned back at borders such as the one with Poland.

"I think there should be more work from Ukrainian activists to also document these things," Alhamad said. 

Alhamad said he wishes Syrian refugees in Western countries would have demonstrated and spoken out more to make residents call on their governments to take a stronger stance on Syria. That's why he wants Ukrainian refugees to organize and continue to raise awareness.

He said Syrians "kept believing that the West is going to help" them, but "they didn't at the end or they did not do it the way they should have done."

But Alhamad noted that while the Syrian crisis has been ongoing for over a decade, it's only been weeks since Russia invaded Ukraine, and the situation can play out differently. 

He offered a message for Ukrainians, advising them to make sure their cause does not get "desensitized" as the crisis continues, encouraging them to continue to speak out and demand foreign nations' help. 

"Don't let your cause be forgotten. Continue talking about it. Annoy Germans, annoy French ... It should not be the cause of Ukraine and Syria alone," he said.