‘Not just mistaken, they are immoral’ – Ukrainian Nobel Peace Prize winner on calls to accept Russian peace terms
2022 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Center for Civil Liberties NGO head, Oleksandra Matviichuk, participated in a discussion titled "The Marshall Plan for Ukraine: Why Ukraine's Victory Will Benefit Everyone" at the Lviv BookForum.
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Ukrainian journalist Kristina Berdynskykh moderated the discussion. When asked why Ukraine cannot agree to peace on Russia’s terms, Matviichuk said:
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"I constantly say that Ukrainians desire peace more than anyone else. But peace does not come when a country that has invaded another one keeps its weapons. Because then it's not peace; it's an occupation. Occupation is just another form of war. I have been documenting Russian war crimes for nine years, and I can definitely say that occupation is not merely a change of one state’s flag to another. Occupation involves forced disappearances, torture, rape, the forced deportation of Ukrainian children, the erasure of identity, filtration camps, mass graves. When we talk about peace, we are talking about the possibility for people to live without the fear of violence and have a long-term outlook. This is the peace we are fighting for. Therefore, calls for Ukraine to satisfy Russia's imperial ambitions are not just mistaken; they are immoral. We have no right to leave people in the occupied territories to die and be tortured."
She noted that partner countries are still thinking not about how to help Ukraine win quickly but about how to prevent it from losing.
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"We are dealing with something different. We are dealing with fear. Fear of taking decisive actions. Because if Ukraine is to win, it means Russia has to lose. And what happens if Russia loses? What happens to a 140-million person nuclear state? This lack of strategy has kept politicians in different countries from taking decisive steps. It seems to me that we are not dealing with fatigue but with a lack of political leadership and historical responsibility."
Matviichuk emphasized that Ukraine needs a recovery plan right now while the war continues.
"I believe that we need to send our international partners the following message: we need recovery now, we need to develop strategies right now, and we need to implement these strategies for local communities right now. We need support and investments right now. We need to find ways not to depend on international assistance and be resilient. Russia is preparing for a long war. We need to build our economic resilience. So, our motto should be 'recovery now,' not when the war ends and Ukraine wins."
Other participants in the discussion included British historian, journalist, and writer Timothy Ash, Sevgil Musayeva, the Editor-in-Chief of the Ukrainian newspaper "Ukrainska Pravda," Emma Graham-Harrison, a British journalist and senior correspondent covering international affairs for The Guardian and The Observer, who reports on the war in Ukraine, and Alexander Sushko, a Ukrainian political scientist and Executive Director of the International Renaissance Foundation.
The 30th Lviv BookForum will run in Lviv until Oct. 8, featuring over 150 events, including 30 panel discussions.
Guests of the forum include Ukrainian writer Oksana Zabuzhko, British historian Anne Applebaum, Georgian poet Paata Shamugia, Franco-British lawyer, practicing attorney, and author of 16 books on international law Philip Sands, and others.
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