At Nobel ceremony, Russian crimes and “imperialism” take center stage
KYIV, UKRAINE>> In an impassioned speech upon receiving the Nobel Peace Prize on Saturday, the laureate from Ukraine seized the moment to make an incongruous but powerful point: At this moment in history, she said, the only way to secure democracy, human rights and a lasting peace in Ukraine is to fight.
“People of Ukraine want peace more than anyone else in the world,” said Oleksandra Matviychuk, who accepted the prize on behalf of the Center for Civil Liberties in Ukraine, which she leads. “But peace cannot be reached by a country under attack laying down its arms. This would not be peace, but occupation.”
The other two laureates — Memorial, a Russian research and human rights organization, and Ales
Bialiatski, a jailed Belarusian activist — have also become symbols of resistance and accountability during Russia’s war in Ukraine.
In her acceptance speech, Matviychuk said the international system designed after World War II has been severely undermined and called on world leaders to “stop pretending deferred military threats are ‘ political compromises.’ ”
“The democratic world has grown accustomed to making concessions to dictatorships,” she said. “And that is why the willingness of the Ukrainian people to resist Russian imperialism is so important.”
A desire for peace does not mean peace at any cost, she said.
“People’s lives cannot be a ‘ political compromise,’ ” she said. “Fighting for peace does not mean yielding to pressure of the aggressor; it means protecting people from its cruelty.”