LONDON Nobel Peace Prize laureate Oleksandra Matviichuk demands the president of Russia Vladimir Putin for war crimes conviction. Human rights lawyers already know a long list of them.
The Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties, a non-governmental organization led by Matviichuk, has already registered 64,000 war crimes in Ukraine since the Russian invasion began. That is more than half of the 122,000 war crimes known to the General Prosecutor of Ukraine. Matviichuk believes that only a fraction of the horrors have been discovered.
Matviichuk wants a court focusing on war crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine to be established before the war ends. Ukraine has demanded this, but the International Criminal Court and the UN have not taken it up.
– We live in a new century. There is no time to wait. Justice should not depend on when the war ends, Matviichuk says at an event organized by foreign correspondents in London.
According to Matviichuk, the war crimes court would show Putin that he faces punishment. It could reduce Russia’s brutal human rights abuses on the battlefield.
– In such a big war, it would mean the saving of thousands of human lives.
“The UN must be fundamentally reformed”‘
So what international organization could set up a court? The International Criminal Court (ICC) has no jurisdiction over Russia because the country is not a member. However, the ICC has issued an international arrest warrant for Putin because of child abductions in Ukraine.
According to Matviichuk, the UN Security Council is paralyzed. With its veto power, Russia can block decisions on Ukraine. The UN rules created after the Second World War no longer work.
– We need to fundamentally reform the UN system if we want it to effectively support peace and security, Matviichuk reflects.
The UN General Assembly doesn’t work either. Matviischuk reminds us that the majority of the world’s population lives in countries that are not free. Many member countries do not represent their people but their leaders, says Matviichuk.
– If Russia wins, it will encourage other authoritarian leaders to challenge the system. We find ourselves in a world that is dangerous for everyone.
Matviichuk thinks that the Council of Europe, which oversees European human rights, could organize a war crimes court.
War crimes are too easy to detect
Forty-year-old human rights lawyer Oleksandra Matviichuk has been defending Ukrainian democracy for twenty years. He participated in the 2004 Orange Revolution as a student. Human rights became a profession.
The Center for Civil Liberties of Ukraine, led by Matviichuk, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022 for its work documenting Russian war crimes.
In recent years, the organization’s employees have interviewed victims and collected evidence as part of the Tribunal for Putin initiative.
– When the forces that liberated the territories occupied by Russia arrived in the villages, they said that it was not difficult to detect the victims of war crimes. It is sad. Matviichuk says.
Matviichuk thinks that rape and sexual violence in particular are much more than is known. Victims don’t talk about it because they feel ashamed. He noticed this while interviewing a prisoner who was known to have been raped. The prisoner detailed all the torture except the rape.
According to Matviichuk, Russia is committing genocide
According to Matviichuk, there is no doubt that Russia is guilty of the worst of war crimes, namely genocide.
He lists examples: the forced adoption of Ukrainian children into Russian families, the killing of civilians, the banning of the Ukrainian language and history, and the destruction of Ukrainian cultural heritage.
– This is genocidal politics. Ukrainians must either be retrained or killed, he describes Putin’s strategy.
Matviichuk says that Russia is deliberately using war crimes as an instrument of warfare because no one has stopped Putin’s war machine.
Russian forces have not been held accountable for their crimes in Chechnya, Moldova, Georgia before, Matviichuk enumerates. Putin was not even punished for the annexation of Crimea in 2014, he wonders.
– The logic of autocratic leaders is always the same. They only respect power. When they see any sign of weakness, they attack again.
Matviichuk reminds that Putin observed how the West responds to the opposition politician To Alexei Navalny to death.
– Unfortunately, I don’t see a big answer, he says.
The West has been slow and reluctant
Matviichuk is angry at the West’s inability to help Ukraine. For him, the Western countries have wanted to help Ukraine only to avoid defeat, not to win.
According to Matviichuk, this can be seen in the quality of weapons received by Ukraine, the slowness of decision-making and sanctions.
– Europe is still not able to close its back door, through which Russia can import the western technology it needs in the war and bypass the sanctions.
It is clear from Matviichuk that Russia is preparing for a long war. At the same time, Ukraine’s western partners are increasingly focusing on their own problems.
US military aid to Ukraine is frozen, while Russia spends 40 percent of its budget on war and acquires weapons from partners such as Iran and North Korea.
– The majority of Russians still support the restoration of the Russian empire, even with violence. Ordinary people in Russia genuinely believe that Russia has the right to take over another country and kill its inhabitants if they don’t comply, Matviichuk estimates.
He reminds that Putin’s threat will not end even if he gets a piece of Ukraine. It is a battle bigger than a war between two states. Opposite are the authoritarian and the democratic world.
Matviichuk sees no other option for Ukraine but to win the war. Defeat would not lead to peace, but to Russia occupying Ukraine. He believes that only the victory of Ukraine would be the only chance for Russia’s democratic future.