‘Accountability gap’: Nobel peace prize winner warns Russian war crimes going unpunished

Oleksandra Matviichuk's organisation has documented more than 21,000 Russian human rights violations since 2014 but she fears the world is looking the other way

Oleksandra Matviichuk has a point she wants to make. The Ukrainian lawyer heads the Centre for Civil Liberties, a human rights organisation that this month jointly won the Nobel peace prize. And she wants to use her platform to call for international action against Russian human rights violations now.

The body she heads has patiently documented more than 21,000 examples of war crimes committed by occupying Russian forces since 2014, including many from after the invasion in February. But, speaking quietly and with controlled emotion, she complains: I haven't any legal instrument to stop the Russian atrocities" - no immediate way of bringing perpetrators to court.