This is a war against humanity

From the speech of Lyudmila Yankina:

Ladies and Gentlemen!

I am honored to be represented here on behalf of ZMINA - Human Rights Center and be awarded this important award. Now my country is going through the hardest time of all the modern countries of the 21st century - this is an unacceptable in the modern world doomsday war of Russia against Ukraine.

Over the past two months, my country has shown the whole world what real courage is. Often the fate of my country was decided on international platforms, but my heroes are not politicians or diplomats, my heroes are people who gave their lives for a free and independent Ukraine in this war. My heroes are those whom I helped to survive the consequences of the Russian occupation by providing humanitarian assistance. It was they who managed to preserve their dignity and national identity, despite the threat of death.

At the moment, I  am  standing before you, a woman in clean clothes,  and my eyes cannot express what I  had experienced. Now I  am before you, a woman in clean clothes,  and my eyes cannot express what I  had experienced. But usually during the war in Ukraine, my hands, face, clothes and shoes  were stained from burning mud and from unloading bags for exhumation and reburial of those killed under torture in Bucha, Irpin and Gostomel.

Before my eyes now is not this beautiful place where I am now, but the burnt ruins of villages and the faces of the victims of this war. Some of them are young girls who run with small children under rocket attacks for almost 30 kilometers, not stopping through fields and forests.

Before my eyes is an elderly woman who made this  Ukrainian vyshyvanka for me (the Ukranian folk  suit.) Kadyrov's tanks were parked outside her house, and her daughter and grandchildren risked being raped and killed. One evening this woman said to her daughter: “Save the girls, save our future, run. “Her daughter and grandchildren were the only family that survived trying to escape the village that night. Six other families were killed. Later, her daughter asked to find her mother, and it was difficult because of the mined roads. But we found her and I was able to put in front of her name  a note - "ALIVE!" Now I take care of her.

Before my eyes now is not the beautiful architecture of wonderful Vienna, but the ruined houses of Borodyanka. Before my eyes are people who were waiting for their loved ones to be pulled out from under the ruins and they could be buried with dignity. I have before my eyes a nurse from the hospital where the raped children were taken, who said: “There is no explanation or justification for this. Before my eyes is now a crying 94-year-old woman who starved for a week until we found her. Her words were: “I survived the Second World War and was not afraid then so much.”

All these people have now become a part of me. I can't stop the war for them or bring back their loved ones, but I can try to lessen their suffering.

This war is not only a war of Russia against Ukraine. It is a war against everything civilized, against development, against the value of human life, against love, against human dignity and against humanity. Therefore, my weapon in this war is love, support for human dignity and humanity.

Thank you!