The delivery of the Nobel Peace Prize, a protest ceremony in defense of Ukraine
The Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian trio awarded the Nobel Peace Prize will collect the prestigious award on Saturday in Oslo (Norway), in a ceremony marked by its claim against Moscow’s invasion of the neighboring country. The Nobel Peace Prize will bring recognition to the Belarusian militant Ales Bialiatski, the Russian organization Memorial and the Center for Civil Liberties (CCL) of Ukraine. It will do so at a difficult time for all three: the Belarusian militant is in prison, Memorial was outlawed last year and the Ukrainian organization operates in the middle of a country at war.
Despite this, none of the representatives of the three winners falters in their fight against the Russian government of Vladimir Putin and the Belarusian government of Alexander Lukashenko. “Putin will only stop when we stop him,” said the head of the Ukrainian organization, Oleksandra Matviichuk, during a press conference at the Nobel Institute on Friday. “The authoritarian leaders (…) perceive any attempt at dialogue as a sign of weakness,” added the human rights lawyer, who called on Western countries to continue sending weapons to Ukraine to liberate its Russian-occupied territories, including Crimea. .
For eight years, the CCL has been reporting on war crimes by Russian and pro-Russian troops in Ukraine. Matviichuk would like Putin and his ally Lukashenko to stand trial for it. “This war has a genocidal character,” says Matviichuk. “If Ukraine stops resisting, we will cease to exist. I have no doubt that sooner or later Putin will appear before an international court.”
Memorial’s president, Ian Rachinski, was more cautious, not surprising given the harsh penalties faced by Russians who criticize their country’s war offensive. “Ukraine must fight for its independence,” Rachinsky said, stressing that “Ukraine is fighting not only for its interests, but also for our future common peace.”