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Oleksandra Matviychuk, Nobel Peace Prize winner and Ukraine’s representative at the 2022 Sakharov Prize, finds it incomprehensible that the West says that the war against Russia defends all of Europe, but does not provide more modern weapons.
“I know many countries have armored vehicles, they have fighter jets, they have air defense systems, but they still hesitate. If they say that we are fighting all over Europe, why don’t they supply us with weapons?”, questioned the human rights lawyer, in an interview with Lusa, on the sidelines of the Sakharov Prize ceremony, delivered on Wednesday by the European Parliament, in Strasbourg, France.
“We don’t ask you to fight the Russians with us, we can do it ourselves. But please provide us with the weapons to do it. Not doing it is something I can’t understand,” he lamented, referring to how, on the news, it seems that Western countries gave Ukraine everything Ukraine needed to fight the Russian invasion.
“Unfortunately not. We still have a great need for modern weapons.said Oleksandra Matviychuk, founder of the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties human rights organization.
To explain the appeal, the activist told a personal story.
“I have a friend who joined the army when Russia started this war in 2014. She is extremely brave and when the full-scale invasion started, she went back to the army. She left her six-year-old son and continued to fight for her to have a peaceful future. She was among the Ukrainian defenders who liberated the Kharkiv region. She participated in the battle for her son. a week ago she went [vítima] mine explosion [apesar de] being in a civilian car,” he recalled, stressing that Ukraine still uses civilian cars to fight.
????????We don’t have enough armored vehicles.???????? If we had armored vehicles, my friend wouldn’t be in a hospital bed right now fighting for her life.”
Despite assuring that “personally, I even understand” that the NATO military alliance does not want to get directly involved in the war, the lawyer guarantees that Ukraine just needs more help.
“I understand that it is our obligation to fight against the occupiers. But what we ask is that they do not let us fight empty-handed”, he stated.
According to him, the politicians who make decisions have to come to their senses and that implies forming popular movements.
????????Being heard depends on how many people we manage to mobilize in the general call for justice. That is why in my Nobel speech I also spoke of movements, of horizontal cooperation, of solidarity, of joint initiatives, ”he explained.
For Oleksandra Matviychuk, the future of Europe depends on ordinary people and their decisions.
“If our brave fellow Russian defenders of human rights [co-vencedores do Prémio Nobel]who only have their words, decided to openly call a spade a spade – they spoke of war as war and atrocities as atrocities – people who have many more instruments can organize demonstrations, can urge their governments to support Ukraine and provide more weapons and economic aid,” said the activist.
But not only. Ordinary people “can make a very simple decision: they say they don’t want their country to buy gasoline from Russia because freedom is worth it,” he said.
“This is not a choice between two types of gas and two types of prices. It is a choice between supporting the authoritarian model or supporting democracy,” she added.
????????Europe has the choice between some malaise today or a catastrophe tomorrow???????? This is the election to defeat Putin and end Russia’s attempt to restore the Russian empire.
“Ordinary people” are, in fact, what the Ukrainian activist considers her inspiration.
“When Russian troops tried to encircle kyiv, international organizations immediately withdrew their personnel. Even those who should be with us and provide humanitarian aid by monitoring human rights violations. We made an appeal in March for them to return. They did not return. But the common people stayed. They help each other”, said the winner of two of the most important prizes for the defense of peace, who also sees herself as an ordinary person.
“I also refused to leave the country,” she said, acknowledging that receiving the Nobel Peace Prize brought her a new responsibility because the award “provides a unique opportunity to be heard.”
Source: Observadora
