Ukrainian Nobel Laureate Warns World Order Is at a Turning Point
Ukrainian human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Oleksandra Matviichuk warns that the world is approaching a decisive moment when the outcome of Russia's war against Ukraine will determine the future world order.
The Gaze reports on it, referring to Bloomberg.
During her tour of Europe, Oleksandra Matviichuk emphasizes that the current diplomatic pressure on Kyiv, especially from Washington, demonstrates a departure from the priority of justice in international politics.
According to her, the preliminary version of the peace plan proposed by the US and Russia, with a de facto amnesty for Moscow, is unacceptable because it contradicts international law and encourages autocratic regimes around the world.
Matviichuk is convinced that if the aggressor is rewarded for the invasion, it will pave the way for further conflicts and destroy the security system created after World War II.
“It’s very important that Ukraine starts to be involved to develop this peace plan because it's about our own future, (the) future of millions of people,” she says. “We have the right to be heard in this process. We are not an object. We have agency.”
Her arguments are based on years of work documenting Russia's war crimes — from torture to enforced disappearances and deportations. Matviychuk emphasizes that Russia's impunity began long before 2022, and the West's weak responses only reinforced the Kremlin's confidence in its own permissiveness.
According to Matviichuk Russian and other authoritarian regimes share the same idea: “They believe in the world of the strongest,” which is one of war and mass violence. For them, “Ukraine is not a goal; Ukraine is a tool to break this world further.”
For years, Russia has exerted brutal pressure on the Ukrainian population, committing thousands of war crimes that have only intensified throughout its full-scale invasion. Recent data from Ukrainian authorities underline that the scale and coordination of these actions amount to a deliberate state policy aimed at destroying the Ukrainian nation.
According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, more than 190,000 Russian war crimes have been documented since February 2022. Investigators focus not only on direct perpetrators but also on Russia’s political and military leadership.
A separate category of atrocities concerns children, being the gravest violations defined by UN Security Council Resolution 1261. The Gaze previously reported that at least 661 Ukrainian children have been killed, more than 2,200 injured, thousands of schools and hospitals damaged, and over 19,000 children abducted and deported from occupied territories. This is one of the largest child deportations in modern European history.
UN representatives and Ukrainian officials stress that these crimes constitute a deliberate campaign of terror, one that carries no statute of limitations and demands an uncompromising global response.
Read more on The Gaze: Why Ukraine’s Victory Matters for International Law