The Real Context News Podcast #9: Oleksandra Matviichuk, Head of Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties, on Democracy & War in Ukraine (2022 Nobel Peace Prize-Winner!)

By Brian E. Frydenborg (LinkedInFacebookTwitter @bfry1981, YouTube)  April 2, 2022 (recorded March 31, 2022); see Brian’s other coverage of Putin’s war against Ukraine here; UPDATE October 7, 2022: Ms. Matviichuk and her organization have won the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize!

Ninth Episode on the struggle for democracy and war in Ukraine as Russian President Vladimir Putin seeks to destroy Ukraine’s democracy with special guest Oleksandra Matviichuk (Twitter: @avalaina), an ardent human rights defender, Head of Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties (English, Russian/Русский, & Ukrainian/Український websites), and recipient of the 2016 Democracy Defender Award from 17 delegations of the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE); she was specifically handed her award by Zhanna Nemtsova, a daughter of famed Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, assassinated by Putin’s thugs in sight of the Kremlin in 2015.

Matviichuk’s Center for Civil Liberties was linked to above; here is the link to the Euromaidan SOS group in which she is also involved

Update April 5th: On April 4th, Oleksandra testified from Ukraine to the Canadian Parliament’s House of Commons for its Subcommittee on International Human Rights of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development (SDIR) for a session titled: Current Situation of Human Sights in Ukraine and Russia; here is the video of that session

DONATE TO SUPPORT UKRAINE!!! Слава Украине! Slava Ukraini!

Matviichuk specifically recommended donating to the Ukrainian military, as if its brave fighters cannot win this war, all else is lost, and specifically recommended Come Back Alive, an organization that supports the Ukrainian military.

The government’s central bank, the National Bank of Ukraine, has also opened special accounts for people to donate to both the Ukrainian Armed Forces and for humanitarian assistance for civilians.

Save the Children is one of the premier international aid organizations and, until the end of April, is matching TEN TIMES your donation, so $10=$100 and $25=$250! I highly recommend donating to them to have maximum impact on the humanitarian situation.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is also an amazing humanitarian organization.

The main UN body to help refugees is the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which does amazing work all over the world. Another vital UN agency involved in helping Ukraine is the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF), a deeply experienced organization, provides emergency medical services for the wounded in Ukraine.

Notes

Center for Civil Liberties report: Surviving Hell: Testimonies of Victims on Places of Illegal Detention in Donbas

2019 Center for Civil Liberties Annual Report

It was in 2004 when Putin traveled twice to Ukraine to campaign for Viktor Yanukovych, including for three days just before the election

Brian’s other coverage of Putin’s war against Ukraine and background

The article I wrote in which I opened with the quote from the 300-year old poem I mentioned, in which a Ukrainian poet protests against Russian degradations

I also mentioned Manafort as Yanukovych’s point man for his Ukraine comeback: here are my deep dives on this for Newsweek (shared byline is a mistake, other author served as editor and contributed reporting on federal prosecutor’s views) and for my Real Context News

© 2022 Brian E. Frydenborg all rights reserved, permission required for republication, attributed quotations welcome

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eBook cover

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