Russian Putin Ukraine war

A trio from the three nations at the center of the war in Ukraine accepted their Nobel Peace Prize on Saturday, calling for the fight to continue unabated.

But peace cannot be reached by a country under attack laying down its arms,” the head of the CCL, Oleksandra Matviichuk, said. “War turns people into numbers. “Today, the number of political prisoners in Russia is more than the total number in all of the Soviet Union at the beginning of the period of perestroika in the 1980s,” Rachinsky said. In the nine months since the start of the Russian invasion, the CCL has documented more than 27,000 cases of alleged war crimes, which she said were “only the tip of the iceberg”. A trio from the three nations at the center of the war in Ukraine accepted their Nobel Peace Prize on Saturday, calling for the fight to continue unabated against Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s “insane and criminal” invasion. Jailed Belarusian rights advocate Ales Bialiatski, Russian organization Memorial and Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties (CCL) were honored by the Nobel committee for their struggle for “human rights, democracy and peaceful co-existence” in the face of authoritarianism.

In a speech at Saturday's award ceremony, Oleksandra Matviichuk, of Ukraine's Centre for Civil Liberties, dismissed calls for a political compromise that would ...

“One of the first victims of this madness was the historical memory of Russia itself,” Mr Rachinsky said. He shared a few thoughts from jail and his wife, Natallia Pinchuk, spoke on his behalf at the award ceremony in Stockhoilm. “I know exactly what kind of Ukraine would suit Russia and Putin — a dependent dictatorship,” he said.

The winners of this year's Nobel Peace Prize from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus have shared their visions of a fairer world during an award ceremony and ...

“One of the first victims of this madness was the historical memory of Russia itself,” Rachinsky said. “It is not worth talking about ‘national’ or any other collective guilt at all — the notion of collective guilt is abhorrent to fundamental human rights principles,” he said. “I know exactly what kind of Ukraine would suit Russia and Putin — a dependent dictatorship,” he said. Bialiatski, who is jailed in Belarus pending his trial and faces a prison sentence of up to 12 years, wasn't allowed to send his speech. “This award belongs to all my human rights defender friends, all civic activists, tens of thousands of Belarusians who have gone through beatings, torture, arrests, prison.” Under the terms of Alfred Nobel’s will, the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded by the Norwegian Nobel Committee since 1901.

Yan Rachinsky, from rights group Memorial, tells the BBC he ignored the order from the Kremlin.

The BBC spoke to them separately in Oslo. When asked why she wanted to do the interview separately, Oleksandra Matviichuk told HARDtalk: "Now we are in a war and we want to make the voice of Ukrainian human rights defenders tangible. "In today's Russia, no-one's personal safety can be guaranteed," he said. "Yes, many have been killed. Mr Rachinsky called the committee's decision to award the prize to recipients in three different countries "remarkable". Yan Rachinsky, who heads Memorial, said he was told not to accept the prize because the two other co-laureates - a Ukrainian human rights organisation and jailed Belarusian rights defender - were deemed "inappropriate".

The Russian Nobel Peace Prize laureate on Saturday (December 10) lashed out at President Vladimir Putin and called the invasion of Ukrainian regions "insane ...

But peace cannot be reached by a country under attack by laying down its arms." He further added that any move to address the crisis by diplomatic talks would be interpreted as a sign of weakness. Meanwhile, the leader of a Ukrainian rights group that won the Nobel Peace Prize said that Ukraine should continue to fight Russian troops

The triple peace prize award was seen as a strong rebuke to Russia's war in Ukraine.

“It is not worth talking about ‘national’ or any other collective guilt at all – the notion of collective guilt is abhorrent to fundamental human rights principles,” he said. “Now, the Russian mass media refer to the unprovoked armed invasion of a neighbouring country, the annexation of territories, terror against civilians in the occupied areas, and war crimes as justified by the need to fight fascism.” “The joint work of the participants of our movement is based on a completely different ideological basis – on the understanding of civic responsibility for the past and for the present.”