“Russia commits war crimes to instill fear”

Alexandra Matvichuk’s face shows almost a month and a half of war fatigue, though her voice, sometimes broken by a deep sigh, still sounds firm and firm. The 38-year-old lawyer and activist, the founder of the Center for Civil Rights in Ukraine, decided to stay in his country to fix possible human rights violations and alleged war crimes with the Russian team. The invasion began on 24 February.

The horrors of war are not new to him and the organization he leads, which has documented evidence of crimes and other violence since 2014, when the conflict between pro-Russian militias and the Ukrainian army began in the Donbas and after the annexation of Crimea. By Russia.

Matviychuk tells todaytimeslive.com that in late February he had to leave home in central Kiev to move to a safer area, and although the situation in the capital is now “a little calmer”, he spent many nights in the city. Shelter Shelter from sudden invasion bombs.

The war also forced her to move away from her family because her husband stays in Kyiv but works in another field and they can not be together. His mother was evacuated from the country and almost a month ago he lost contact with his father, who was in the area occupied by Russian troops in the east. “In fact, there is no safe place in the country,” said the activist.

For Matvichichuk and his team, there is no doubt that Russia is committing war crimes. Recent images of the devastation in Bucha, a city northwest of Kiev where Ukrainian soldiers have found dozens of peaceful bodies after the withdrawal of Russian troops, add to “deliberate attacks on civilian areas such as schools or residential buildings, torture, and brutality.” Treatment, hostage-taking and cases of sexual violence, ”the lawyer said, along with other violence. The aim of the work of his NGO is to condemn war crimes before the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

What is the Ukrainian Civil Rights Center like in this war?

We work in different fields. We provide assistance as a logistics center as we have a database of various initiatives working in the humanitarian field and medical assistance by the way. We connect with needy people through these initiatives. We also testify to war crimes. Russia commits war crimes to instill fear and does so systematically on a very large scale. We collect a lot of testimonies from war crimes victims so that they have legal protection at the international level, because inside the country it is a much more difficult solution and we need the cooperation of the international community. And we carry out various humanitarian initiatives. We have launched several campaigns in this regard, as Russia has allowed only one humanitarian corridor to the International Committee of the Red Cross during this time, and there are other evacuations that are carried out at great risk as a result of the bombing of Russian troops. We are also on social networks (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube) and try to provide citizens with useful information such as which pharmacy is open or what can be done during the bombing. We also share information about human rights violations abroad.

What kind of crimes have been reported so far?

We have identified a variety of war crimes, such as targeted attacks on civilians and civilian facilities, mainly residential buildings, schools, kindergartens, churches, and other critical civilian infrastructure that provide heat and electricity. We have also witnessed premeditated killings, torture, ill-treatment and hostage-taking, as well as deliberate attacks on medical staff.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of massacring civilians in Bucha. Moscow denies the allegations.. Does your NGO consider this a war crime?

Yes, they are barbarians [en referencia a los soldados rusos]. In this article [de la agencia de noticias rusa RIA Novosti] They openly write about the killing of civilians. Our goal is to document war crimes so that Putin and all those who committed the crimes can be brought before the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

The UN Human Rights Council Last week, it announced the creation of a commission to investigate war crimes and other violence committed during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. What do you expect from this commission?

Not so much. It is important to set up these types of commissions internationally and we are already in contact with some of the members of this commission and will be happy to provide them with information about it. Hopefully, they will conduct a rigorous investigation from which valid conclusions and some recommendations can be drawn, but Russia is clearly not going to implement them. This commission does not have a mechanism to force Russia to comply with them.

იმეSeveral weeks ago Commented on Twitter That Russian soldiers raped a woman’s case came to them. Were there any more cases of sexual assault?

We did not get just one case, we got more. We gathered hundreds of volunteers and gave them some simple hints that they would be able to work on. When we make these contacts, we hand them over to international organizations because our volunteers are not ready to serve victims of sexual violence because they need a lot of prior training.

I have observed other disorders in the past and so I know it was very important to be prepared not to cause further harm to the survivors through inappropriate behavior and not to harm yourself. Unfortunately, this is happening and is a very important indicator for me because I know from my own experience that this is a crime that is usually hidden. First of all, most of the victims do not even inform the police, they try to hide. If we already know about some cases of sexual violence, it is because the problem is bigger and the victims have already raised awareness that it has been publicly condemned.

Many women have left Ukraine with their children to seek refuge in other countries, but there are also many others who have decided to stay like you. What role do women play in this war?

Women play a fundamental role in this war. They are in the army, helping to build the defense, making important political decisions, launching and leading initiatives … they have a leading role.

Almost a month and a half after the start of the Russian invasion, what should we expect from Vladimir Putin?

He decided to change tactics because he realized he had failed. I thought this war would end faster and it did not. I do not know what he is going to do because I am not a military expert, but I know he is not going to stop and he is not going to stop because the international community is actively doing nothing to stop him.

What do you think the international community can do to help Ukraine?

Ukraine has been asking Western allies for fighter jets and air defense systems all this time and has not received them. We are unarmed, it is unfortunate. When you say Ukraine, you can not stand by Ukraine … I am a human rights activist, but the law does not solve the problem in this case. We can not get our hands on the Geneva Convention and stand in front of a tank and tell them “you can not deliberately bomb civilians”, it does not work that way. If the law does not work, if diplomacy fails, let us protect even our own civilian population. I really do not understand. Western countries claim that if arms were sold to Ukraine, we would enter World War III, but before the war Russia was sold arms without any problems. I’m not a judge, but history will put everyone in their place.

Do you think the war will last longer?

We are ready for a long war. Russia wants Ukraine to go back in time because it belongs to them. When Ukraine became a democracy, it damaged Putin’s authoritarian regime and started a war. He will do everything possible to prevent this democratic transition in Ukraine.

What happens next?

I believe that sooner or later we will be able to rebuild a country where we will have a stable government, where the rights of the population are protected, where the judiciary is independent and the police do not suppress student demonstrations. But I do not know, because our allies in the West do not impose more economic sanctions on Russia: they have not yet removed all Russian banks from the SWIFT system, they still trade in Russian gas and oil, so the Russian economy will be able to. Continue to fund this war. That’s why I’m not sure I’m witnessing Ukraine. If Ukraine succeeds, it will be a great gift for the country’s democratic future.