My name is Oleksandra Matviichuk. I'm a human rights defender with the Center for Civil Liberties.
We have resumed the work of the Euromaidan SOS and have brought up several hundred volunteers to document war crimes. Together with other human rights organizations, we work in the “tribunal for Putin” coalition.
I'm in Kyiv now, which was being shelled by the Russian military for more than a month. Since the first days of the new wave of Russian aggression against Ukraine, civil society and Ukrainian investigators and prosecutors have continuously reported on various war crimes committed by the Russian forces. Russia has provided deliberate attacks on civilian objects like schools, hospitals, residential buildings and critical civilian infrastructure. There has been the use of human shields, perfidy, misuse of the Red Cross emblem, use of Ukrainian uniform and insignia by Russian soldiers, and attacks on specially protected objects like nuclear power plants and dumps.
Lately, it has become painfully clear from even this—it's not all—that Russian soldiers in occupied territories commit despicable atrocities against the civilian population. Rape and other gender-based violence, deliberate killings, torture, ill treatment, enforced disappearances and outrage against personal dignity are not rare and unfortunate, but rather a pattern of behaviour that is being tolerated, encouraged and later covered by the commanders, state media and the political leadership of the aggressor. Such actions are not justified by any military necessity. Russia is simply using war crimes as a method of warfare.
Speaking about prohibited weapons that Russia used during their armed conflict, the center has reported on the use of incendiary weapons. Free-falling bombs, cluster munitions, land mines, booby traps, etc. Russia is not party to several core instruments prohibiting, for instance, the use of anti-personnel mines or cluster munitions. In the densely populated areas, in the cities and near places of concentration of civilians, the use of such weapons is strictly prohibited even for Russia. Despite that, Russia disregards this portion of international humanitarian law as well as many other international laws and customs.
Russia undermines the meaning of life. In cities destroyed and deliberately isolated by Russian troops, like Mariupol, people sit for weeks in bomb shelters without food, water, electricity and medical care. During all this time, Russia has agreed with the international Red Cross on only one single humanitarian corridor in Sumy. Instead, Russia has illegally moved thousands of Ukrainians to its territory. The question now is, how can people without documents cross back across the border?
History is being written before our eyes. We are dying, but we are not giving up. For more than a month, we have been paying an enormous price simply for the right to a democratic choice. In this regard, we need western democracies to take necessary steps to stop Putin and to end this war in Europe. The Geneva Conventions and the entire international rule of law, peace and security are in ruins in places Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Mariupol and other Ukrainian cities. Massive atrocities against civilians in Bucha and other cities in the Kyiv region clearly demonstrate that Russia is simply killing unarmed civilians.
It will be strange to hear this from me as a human rights lawyer, but I will tell you that Ukraine needs weapons. Ukraine needs long-range air defence systems such as NASAMS to protect our cities. That would help us to close our skies. Russia has fired over 1,300 ballistic and cruise missiles. No country has provided us with this assistance so far.
We also need military jets to be able to control the sky. On the ground, we need heavy weaponry to defend our people, as well as land artillery systems, tanks and armoured vehicles. We need a lot of strike drones, more anti-tank weapons and anti-ship missiles.
We need your support because it's not only about the war between Russia and Ukraine. It's about the civilization of the confrontation between authoritarianism and democracy. Ukraine is at the forefront of this fight. We are ready to defend our people, our freedom and our human dignity. We are ready to defend the values of the free world.
I hope that Canada, and all democratic countries, will know not just ignore this.
Thank you.