The Ukrainian human rights lawyer talks to EL PAÍS about war crimes committed by the Russia, the weakness of the international justice system, and the accusations of genocide in Gaza
Here’s part of the interview by El Pais
Oleksandra Matviichuk has a special dress tucked away in the back of her closet, a very pretty one, reserved for one day in a hypothetical future when she will finally see the man she has been trying to bring to justice for a decade — Russian President Vladimir Putin — sitting in front of an international court. She often says that she will wear red lipstick, as she is wearing this Saturday in September. The 40-year-old Ukrainian began her battle against one of the most powerful men in the world in 2014, after Russia’s annexation of Crimea, but her work intensified in 2022, when Moscow invaded Ukraine. In 2022, her efforts were rewarded with the Nobel Peace Prize, which she won together with imprisoned Belarusian human rights activist Ales Bialiatski and the Russian human rights organization Memorial.
Matviichuk heads the Center for Civil Liberties, which has already documented more than 78,000 war crimes in an attempt to leave a record for posterity, a historical memory that — in the unlikely event that Putin is tried — will help build a strong case against him. “It is a huge amount, but it is only the tip of the iceberg. Russia uses terror to deliberately cause pain to civilians in order to break people’s resistance,” she says in an interview with EL PAÍS. Since receiving the Nobel Prize, another of her tasks has been to attend events such as Mexico’s Hay Festival in Querétaro, where she acts as a kind of ambassador for Ukraine, spreading the word and trying to stop the world from forgetting the war.
Question. How does it feel to be here while there is a war at home?
Answer. When I landed in Mexico, the first thing I did was check what had happened in Ukraine during the flight. I discovered that Russia had shelled my native city, so I started sending messages to see if I still had a home to return to, if my family is still alive [they are]. War is a lottery and you never know which residential building or family will be die because of Russian rockets. When Ukrainians are abroad, we feel guilty because we can’t share the danger that the people we love are going through.
Q. You live in Kyiv. What is daily life like in the city?
A. It’s hard to express. I still can’t find the right words to describe what it means to live in a war. If you go to Kyiv, you’ll see restaurants and theaters open, people smiling. Normal life is going on, but it’s not just normal life, it’s an act of resistance by people in an abnormal situation, trying to adapt, enjoy, be happy. But there is no totally safe place to hide from Russian rockets. A family from Kyiv left the city when the full-scale invasion began in 2022. They had a one-year-old daughter, Lisa, and they were afraid something might happen to her. But Russia bombed the city they fled to, Vinnytsia, and Lisa died.
Q. Your organization has documented more than 78,000 war crimes. How is all this information processed?
A. This war can turn people into just numbers because the scale of the crimes is so large that it is impossible to recognize all the stories. We document each individual story so that we can put a name to it, because people are not numbers, and so that, sooner or later, they will have justice.
Read the full interview