Ukraine activist who met Biden in 2014 says ‘Russian war crimes could have been stopped’ if he had listened to her

‘We have no time for emotions, or reflection, or for pain, for we are in a war’ lawyer Oleksandra Matviichuk tells Andrew Buncombe

Oleksandra Matviichuk (l) says she asked for Joe Biden’s help when he visited Ukraine in April 2014 (Oleksandra Matviichuk/Twitter)

A Ukrainian activist who pleaded with Joe Biden eight years ago to provide more military aid to her country, has said had he listened to her then, Russia may not have invaded her country and committed war crimes.

Oleksandra Matviichuk, a lawyer who heads the Kyiv-based Center for Civil Liberties, recently posted a photograph showing her talking with Biden in April 2014, shortly after the protests in February that year which ended with the ousting of pro-Russian elected president Viktor Yanukovych and the overthrow of his government.

Matviichuk said the then vice president had met with civil society group members such as her, and asked how Washington could help. At one point, she says, she and Biden were speaking alone.

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“It was a very quick conversation. And he asked me, ‘What can the United States of America do for Ukraine’,” Matviichuk tells The Independent.

“And I answered ‘Give us weapons’. And now I repeat this call. Maybe it’s very surprising for a human rights lawyer.”

She adds: “But my goal is not only to collect the evidence of war crimes, my main goal is how to stop the war crimes – to stop war crimes [happening].”

Speaking from Kyiv, Matviichuk, 39, says she has spent the past eight years collating evidence of war crimes, focusing on the pro-Russian territories of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine that have been the location for constant low-level conflict, since Vladimir Putin announced in February 2014 he would recognise them as independent.

Moscow also sent arms, fighters and money. At the same time, he seized control of Crimea, which was similarly part of Ukraine.

Putin has alleged it was war crimes inflicted on the residents in those two Russian-speaking areas, an accusation denied by the Ukraine government in Kyiv, that led him to launch his so-called “special military operation”.

Matviichuk says in the four weeks since the invasion, she and a small team have been collating first-hand evidence of war crimes committed by the Russian troops, allegations denied by Moscow..

“Russia uses war crimes as a tool of conducting this war. And that’s why this action has a very systematic and large scale character. And there are a lot of evidence,” she says.

Matviichuk says the Geneva Conventions prohibit the intentional targeting of civilians during conflict. Yet, she says there is widespread evidence, captured by video footage and photographs, that show residential buildings in cities such as Mariupol and Kharkiv being repeatedly struck by Russian planes and artillery.

Last week, officials in the southern city of Mariupol said up to 300 people had been killed earlier this month when Russian forces struck a cinema theatre that 1,300 civilians were using as a bomb shelter.

The Russian word for “children” had been written in huge letters on the ground, with the intention to alert planes flying overhead. Russia has denied responsibility and claimed – without providing evidence – the attack was staged by Ukraine.

Matviichuk says she believes the Russian tactics are intended to demoralise and terrify the Ukrainian population.

“They want to stop the local resistance. As I understand it, [the Russian troops] became victims of their own Russian propaganda. They were sure they will face only the  Ukrainian army,” she says.

“But they’re faced with the whole Ukrainian nation. And you can see the behaviour of locals in occupied city [such as] Slavutych, where people went to the main streets and squares to stand very bravely, even as Russian started using violence against them.

“They demanded they release its mayor and he was released. That is why the Russians are using tactics that create more civilian casualties and disasters – to stop this local resistance on the ground.”

Matviichuk says the process of collecting information about such atrocities is deeply traumatic. She says she has been doing it for eight years, but many newer members of her team have just a basic training and little experience.

Last week, they collected testimony from a woman whose husband had been killed and her 14-year-old son badly injured, when they passed a Russian check-point in the town of Bucha, a neighbourhood northwest of Kyiv, as they sought to obtain humanitarian aid.

“Our volunteers are unprepared. And for them, it’s extremely painful,” she says. “But we have no time for emotions, or reflection, or for pain, for we are in a war.”

Matviichuk and her group intentionally act with speed and collect the basic information of the alleged incidents as they seek to handle many incidents. In cases where the evidence is compelling, witnesses can be reinterviewed if such a process is necessary.

Prosectors at the International Criminal Court in The Hague have opened a war crimes case, and earlier this month the UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution condemning alleged rights violations during Russia’s military actions, and established a probe.

“The Human Rights Council has decided to urgently establish an independent international commission of inquiry as a result of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine,” the UNHRC said in a tweet.

UN political affairs chief Rosemary DiCarlo also warned the Security Council that direct attacks against civilians and civilian objects were prohibited under international law, and may amount to war crimes.

“The utter devastation being visited on these cities is horrific,” she said.

While Biden and leaders of other Nato nations have provided considerable military aid to Ukraine and imposed major financial sanctions on Russia, they have repeatedly rejected the demand of Ukraine leader Volodymyr Zelensky, to impose a no-fly zone.

Nato nations have said to do so would require them to be ready to engage directly with the Russian military, something that has the potential to trigger a  wider conflict.

Biden has backed Ukraine but refused to impose a no-fly zone (AP)

Matviichuk, who met with Biden eight years ago, says had America helped protect Ukraine’s skies, it would have stopped the war crimes that are happening now.

“We sleep every night in Kyiv in a different bomb shelter, as we don’t know what part of Kyiv will be the next target, and what residential buildings will be next destroyed,” she says.

“And you can see the picture of Mariupol; we don’t want [that to happen to] all other Ukrainian cities.”

Asked about Biden’s reasoning for not doing so, she says: “What is the alternative? If Ukraine does not don’t stop Putin and repeal Putin in Ukraine, Putin will go further.”

She adds: “He openly said, and his Russian propagandist on TV openly said, that Ukraine is only a first, intermediate goal.

“So if we are not be able to stop Putin in Ukraine, it’s only a matter of time [that another] European country will be a target.”