Nobel Peace Prize winners denounce Vladimir Putin’s “senseless and criminal” war

Nobel Peace Prize winners, activists from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus, rejected Vladimir Putin’s “senseless and criminal” war as they accepted the prestigious award in Oslo on Saturday.

Hailing from the three main countries involved in the conflict, the Belarusian militant Ales Beliatski -imprisoned in his country-, the Russian NGO Memorial -dissolved by justice- and the Center for Civil Liberties (CCL) of Ukraine, were awarded for the their commitment in favor of “human rights, democracy and peaceful coexistence” in the face of authoritarian forces.

“The Ukrainian people want peace more than anyone else in the world,” CCL director Oleksandra Matviichuk said at the handover ceremony.

“But peace for an attacked country is not achieved by laying down arms. It would not be peace, but occupation,” he added.

Created in 2007, the CCL reports on war crimes of Russian troops and pro-Russian in Ukraine.

Following Russian bombing of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, Matviichuk had to write his Nobel acceptance speech by candlelight, he told AFP in an interview before the ceremony.

war crimes

In nine months of the Russian invasion, the CCL represented “over 27,000 episodes” of war crimes, according to her, and this is “only the tip of the iceberg”.

“War turns people into numbers. We have to put names back to all the victims of war crimes,” he said.

Voice cracking with emotion, Matviichuk called once again for the creation of an international tribunal to try “Putin, (his ally, Belarusian leader Alexander) Lukashenko and other war criminals.”

The president of Memorial, the Russian Yan Rachinski, for his part denounced the “imperial aspirations” in his country, heir to the USSR.

Putin’s Russia has misrepresented the historical significance of the anti-fascist struggle “for the benefit of its own political interests,” he said.

Now, “Resisting Russia equals fascism” he insisted.