When I interviewed people who survived Russian captivity, they told me that the perpetrators were confident that they would never be prosecuted and punished because Russia committed horrible war crimes in Chechnya, Moldova, Georgia, Mali, Syria, Libya, and other countries, and has never been punished for it. This impunity has become a part of Russian culture. Because culture is not just literature or ballet, culture is the senses and patterns present in society.
Interview with Meduza, December 2023
Oleksandra Viacheslavivna Matviichuk (born 8 October 1983) is a Ukrainian human rights lawyer and civil society leader based in Kyiv. She heads the non-profit organization Centre for Civil Liberties and is a campaigner for democratic reforms in her country and the OSCE region.
On 4 June 2021, Matviichuk was nominated to the United Nations Committee against Torture and made history as Ukraine’s first female candidate to the UN treaty body. She ran on a platform to limit violence against women in conflict.
Between the Revolution of Dignity and 2022, she focused on documentation of war crimes during the war in Donbas. Meeting then Vice President of the United States Joe Biden in 2014, she advocated for more weapons support to help end the war.
The Centre for Civil Liberties was awarded the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, jointly with Ales Bialiatski and Russian organization Memorial.
This was the first Nobel Prize awarded to a Ukrainian citizen or organization.
Interview with Oleksandra about War Crimes
Meduza conducted an interview with Oleksandra Matviichuk, where she speaks about pursuing justice for Ukraine in wartime.
Ordinary people started to do extraordinary things
Gratitude for what ordinary people in the whole world did to support Ukraine and calling for other to follow their example.
Let’s help Ukraine to win faster.