Oleksandra Matviichuk: ‘If we want to prevent wars in the future, we must punish the states and their leaders who start these wars now’

Oleksandra Matviichuk (b. 1983) is a Ukrainian human rights lawyer and civil society leader based in Kyiv. She heads the non-profit organisation Centre for Civil Liberties (Nobel Peace Prize receiver in 2022) and is a democratic reform campaigner.

She is Vice-President of the International Federation for Human Rights. This interview was conducted on 16 July, during the Ukraine Recovery Conference 2025 in Rome. 

Since the occupation of Crimea by unmarked Russian soldiers in 2014, the European Union has imposed economic and legal sanctions on Russia with the aim of putting pressure on the Kremlin. The sanctions were boosted after the 2022 full-scale invasion. The creation of a Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine, announced in 2023 and supported politically and financially by the European Union, aims to fill a gap left by the International Criminal Court, which cannot prosecute Moscow for the crime of aggression due to jurisdictional limitations (Russia is not a party to the Rome Statute on the ICC). The tribunal is expected to be established by the end of 2025 and will be tasked with judging the Russian political and military elite deemed responsible for the war.

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Maryna Svitlychna: Why is a special tribunal for the crime of aggression against Ukraine necessary? Could the existing institutions not be utilised instead?

Oleksandra Matviichuk: Because there are no existing institutions that can prosecute Vladimir Putin and the top political leadership and military command of the Russian Federation for the crime of aggression. Even the International Criminal Court (ICC) has unfortunately no jurisdiction for the crime of aggression in the case of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. All the crimes that we document are the result of the decision to start a war. That is why a special tribunal for aggression must be established in order to fill this gap in responsibility. And it is very important that (June 25), a historic agreement was signed between Ukraine and the Council of Europe, which marked the beginning of its establishment.

Why is it important to establish it now?

Because we live in the 21st century, and our task is to ensure that justice does not depend on how and when the war ends. This is actually a revolutionary idea, although most people do not realize how revolutionary it is. If we want to prevent wars in the future, we must punish the states and their leaders who start these wars now. And this sounds like common sense. But there has been only one such precedent in the entire history of mankind: the Nuremberg and Tokyo Tribunals. This was an important step in the last century for the establishment of law and justice. But remind that the Nuremberg Tribunal is a court of the victors. That is, it tried Nazi war criminals after their regime had fallen.

And as sad as it may be, such an unspoken norm was set that justice is the privilege of the victors. But justice is not a privilege. Justice is a basic human right. And a lot has changed since the Nuremberg Tribunal. But we, as Ukrainian civil society, Ukraine, and a number of international partners, had to make enormous efforts to convince the international community that we should not wait and should not make justice dependent on when and how the war ends. Therefore, this special tribunal must work now. If there is a crime, if there are people who committed this crime, we know them by name, then there must be punishment.

The international legal framework is under great pressure because of alleged double standards, do you think this will affect the Ukrainian path towards justice?

In my opinion, there are no double standards, but there is a consistent violation of international law and international obligations undertaken by various countries –  not only Western countries. Let's take our Ukrainian case and remember how African countries and Latin American countries vote at the General Assembly, condemning Russian aggression. Or let's remember that when the International Criminal Court announced an arrest warrant for Putin and his Commissioner for Human Rights Maria Lvova-Belova, the President of South Africa in the same year invited President Putin to the BRICS summit, which was taking place in his country. 

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‘Un unspoken norm was set that justice is the privilege of the victors. But justice is not a privilege. Justice is a basic human right’

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This is despite the fact that South Africa  filed a complaint with the International Court of Justice about the genocide being committed in Gaza. At the same time, South Africa also turns a blind eye to Russia's aggressive war, declaring neutrality. 

We can also recall the example of Brazil, whose president refused to go to the international peace summit organized by Ukraine in Switzerland, saying that the issue of peace cannot be discussed without Russia. But last year he did not invite the Ukrainian delegation to the G20 summit, which took place in Brazil, and where he discussed the issue of peace only with the Russian delegation in the absence of Ukraine. Well, these are the same double standards that the West is often accused of. But we can see that countries of the global South do this. And for me, therefore, the problem is clear, we need to stop calling it double standards. We need to talk about the fact that countries in different parts of the world violate international law and do not take on international obligations, and depending on their political sympathies, choose one strategy or another.

How do you personally stay resilient and motivated in the face of such immense challenges and emotional burdens when documenting atrocities?

I think there are several things that keep me going. The first is a sense of responsibility. This is the most documented war in the history of mankind. We have in our database, which we are conducting together with partners, more than 88,000 episodes of war crimes. These are not just numbers. Behind these numbers are specific human destinies. It is really very important to me that these stories do not remain recorded only in national archives, but become the basis for justice and for returning to people their names, violated rights and restoration of human dignity. I see this as my main task. The second thing is that I know that all our efforts are meaningful, despite the fact that the challenge we face is enormous. If we do nothing, we will not achieve the future we strive for. Therefore, fighting for this future is always the best strategy.

Do you think the European Union can do more to stop atrocities?

There is always more to do. We are grateful for their support. And it really helped Ukraine survive in the first months, in the first years of this full-scale war. Because the war itself has been going on for eleven years, it became noticeable to the world only in 2022, when the full-scale invasion began. 

Still, there are a whole series of things that need to be done now. I will name just one: here are $300 billion in frozen Russian assets. These are state funds that are in the G7 countries, in addition to Belgium. This amount is much larger than any total aid that has been allocated to Ukraine over the years. It is logical that the aggressor must pay for the damage caused and that Russia will refuse to pay. 

The frozen assets can be transferred to a special trust fund that will operate with these assets and use them to rebuild Ukraine, to provide compensation to those affected by Russian aggression, to purchase weapons – that is, for everything that our European partners currently lack funds for. As we understand, we cannot count on American money at all. But the funds have to come from somewhere. Despite this urgent need, nothing has been done to confiscate these assets. There are only two options here:  either these assets will be transferred for the purposes of Ukraine, or these assets will be transferred for the purposes of Russia. 

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There is no third option, because these funds are frozen on the basis of the sanctions regime, and every six months the countries of the European Union must unanimously extend it. It is very easy to imagine that, for example, [Hungarian Prime minister Viktor] Orbán will block the extension of the sanctions regime. This means that the funds must be returned to the Russian Federation, on the same day. And I just have a question: what are European countries counting on? Are they ready to make the largest investment in the Russian military machine in the form of 300 billion euros? It is clear what Russia will use the funds it would get back for. Officially 40% of the Russian budget goes to military spending.

What does it mean to live in the occupied territories? A large part of the Western public opinion does not seem to have a clear idea of it, or even imagine the situation.

People don't understand what occupation is, and they don't want to delve into it, despite the fact that there is a huge amount of information. I'm not even talking about reports from Ukrainian organizations. There are regular UN reports. These reports may sounddry and bureaucratic, but you immediately understand that occupation is not just changing one flag for another: occupation is forced disappearances, rape, illegal imprisonment, the erasure of your identity, the forced adoption of your children, filtration camps and mass graves. This is all occupation.

Then you come to the simple conclusion that occupation does not reduce human suffering; it simply makes human suffering invisible, because people have no way to protect themselves. And occupation is the same as war. Even under international humanitarian law, just in a different form. For eleven years now, we have been documenting the crimes committed by Russia in the occupied territory. I can illustrate the essence of the occupation with one specific example: This is the story of the children's writer Volodymyr Vakulenko. He wrote wonderful works for Ukrainian children, and a whole generation of Ukrainian children grew up on his Daddy's Book. He disappeared during the Russian occupation. I know his family: until the last moment they believed that he, like thousands of other Ukrainian civilians, had simply been captured and was being illegally held in Russian captivity. 

But when the Ukrainian army drove the Russians out of the Kharkiv region, we found mass graves in the forest near the city of Izyum. And these were graves where there were hundreds of bodies of men, women, and children. Some of them had their hands tied behind their backs. And in grave number 319, according to the results of identification, it was established that the body belonged to Volodymyr Vakulenko. He was tortured and beaten. One can simply ask, why would the Russians kill a children's writer? Well, because they could do it. The essence of the occupation is that the Russians can do whatever they want to a person, just because they can.

What can you say about the Ukrainians who, in the temporarily occupied territories, “collaborate” with the Russian forces?

Well, this is generally a very difficult question to answer simply. Because, on the one hand, Ukrainian legislation must draw some red lines: there is a huge difference between living in the occupied territories and even carrying out certain orders coming from the occupation authorities in order to survive. This must be treated with understanding, like, for example, the forced imposition of Russian citizenship, without which you will simply be deported from your home after a while because they will say that you are not a citizen of Russia, and everything that has been seized is already Russian land. 

On the other hand, people who take part in war crimes, who contribute to the occupation in a way that is defined as a crime by the Criminal Code [of Ukraine], must clearly understand that they will be held responsible, that [the Ukrainian authorities] will not turn a blind eye. 

Some changes to the Criminal Code [of Ukraine] were made back in May 2022, and established the articles on “collaborationism”. Still, Ukrainian human rights activists criticized these changes for not fully complying with international standards. The practice has since developed in a quite differentiated and contradictory way: on the one hand, we see people who should be persecuted, but they are not: and on the other hand, we see people who, obviously, did not do anything that could be considered strengthening the occupation regime through crimes, but for some reason they ended up under criminal proceedings. This is such a real problematic area, which requires a more balanced state policy.

Everything in Russia’s behaviour seems to point to a long-lasting war, with brutal airstrikes across Ukraine designed to break the spirit of the people. Are Ukrainians prepared for that? Are you?

I am reminded here of the Roman Stoics, who said that many people considered themselves good only because their goodness was never tested. It is very difficult to live during a full-scale invasion. And none of the Ukrainians chose this war: it was Russia that started it. And we were forced to take up arms and defend ourselves, to defend our people, our country, our democratic choice.

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‘If we cannot stop Putin in Ukraine, then he will go further and he will attack some other European country’

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In this war, we are fighting for freedom in every sense: or the freedom to be an independent country, not a Russian colony;  for the freedom to preserve our Ukrainian identity, and not to re-educate our own children as Russians; for the freedom to have a democratic choice, that is, simply to live and build our country so that the rights of every person in this country are protected. And we are paying the highest price simply for getting this chance to live and build a country the way we want because Russia is waging war through a conscious policy of pain and suffering, because it deliberately commits war crimes – and that is why there are so many of them that we are documenting. 

This is the way Russia is trying to win the war, trying to break people's resistance through pain and occupying the country. Now we see that since more than three years, despite the enormous burden, despite the fact that millions of people are in pain, Ukrainians continue to resist, each and every one in their place. It’s hard to say how long Ukrainians can hold on, because the resilience that Ukrainians have clearly shown cannot be taken for granted. 

Ukraine truly needs support. Even for pragmatic reasons, because if we cannot stop Putin in Ukraine, then he will go further and he will attack some other European country. So this is a question not only for Ukrainians whether we will be able to withstand this full-scale war. I would address this question to the Europeans, who will then face a much bigger problem than simply allocating the next tranches of aid to Ukraine. Because they should understand right now that they are safe only because the Ukrainians continue to fight.

This article is the result of a collective effort carried out through the Pulse project. Florian Niederndorfer from Der Standard, and Gian-Paolo Accardo and Francesca Barca from Voxeurop contributed to it.