Ukrainians honored with European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize

‘Nobody deserves this award extra’. The European Parliament on Wednesday awarded its Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought to the “courageous individuals of Ukraine” confronted with the Russian invasion.

‘This award is devoted to Ukrainians who struggle on the pitch. To those that have been pressured to flee. To those that have misplaced family members and associates. To all those that resist and struggle for his or her convictions,” declared the President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola, saying the selection of the establishment within the hemicycle in Strasbourg.

The rewarded Ukrainian persons are represented ‘by their President Volodymyr Zelensky, their elected representatives and civil society’, she mentioned.

Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the presentation of the celebrated prize, saluting his people who find themselves preventing for ‘freedom and democracy’. “Ukrainians show their dedication to the values ​​of freedom and democracy day by day on the battlefield towards the Russian terrorist state”, assured Mr. Zelensky on Twitter, stressing that the help of the EU was “crucial for the ‘Ukraine’.

“I do know that the courageous individuals of Ukraine won’t give in, and neither will we,” added Roberta Metsola, stressing that Ukrainians had been additionally risking their lives “to safeguard the values ​​all of us imagine in: freedom, democracy, justice. ‘rule of regulation’.

The primary chief of a European establishment to go to Ukraine after the outbreak of conflict, Roberta Metsola thought-about that ‘nobody deserved this award extra’.

Confronted with the “acts of pure terror” of Russia in Ukraine, denounced once more Wednesday morning by the President of the European Fee Ursula von der Leyen, the candidacy of the Ukrainian individuals has additionally made “consensus” among the many political teams of the Parliament.

Extremely symbolic

“Because the prize bears the identify of Russian dissident Andrei Sakharov, it’s a extremely symbolic gesture to award it to Ukraine at this important second in its struggle towards the invasion launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin,” mentioned famous Portuguese MEP Pedro Marques, vice-president of the S&D group (left), second parliamentary group.

‘Who else however the Ukrainian individuals has given a lot to democratic values ​​in our up to date period?’, additionally reacted the Frenchman Stéphane Séjourné, president of the Renew Europe group (centrists and liberals).

Two different finalists had been within the operating: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, detained in London, and Colombia’s Fact Fee, a physique that investigates human rights violations through the armed battle with FARC guerrillas.

Created in 1988, the Sakharov Prize ‘for freedom of thought’ rewards annually individuals or organizations defending human rights and basic freedoms. It’s endowed with a sum of fifty,000 euros.

Nobel antechamber

On a number of events the prize has acted as an antechamber to the Nobel Peace Prize, as for the Congolese gynecologist Denis Mukwege and the Yazidie Nadia Murad, the younger Pakistani Malala Yousafzai or Nelson Mandela, first winner of the Sakharov Prize.

This 12 months, the Russian NGO Memorial, co-founded by the nice Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, who gave his identify to the European Parliament prize, was in flip co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

In 2021 and 2020, the Sakharov Prize had already honored those that rise up towards the regime of Vladimir Putin and his allies. He had rewarded the Russian opponent nonetheless imprisoned Alexeï Navalny final 12 months, and, the earlier 12 months, “the democratic opposition” to President Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus.

The 2022 Sakharov Prize will likely be formally awarded on December 14 throughout a ceremony within the hemicycle of the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

/ATS