The brave people of Ukraine are fighting. We deserve and need the support of the West

Human rights lawyer Oleksandra Matviichuk, 38, is head of the Centre for Civil Liberties and remains in Kyiv.

I met Joe Biden in 2014. It was during the vice-president’s visit to Ukraine and I was the co-ordinator of a human rights group.

Biden came to Ukraine and we had a general meeting and then we had the chance of a private meeting. In the photo, you can see us standing face to face.

He asked what could the United States do to help Ukraine. What did I tell him? I told him: “Give us weapons.” Today I ask again.

Maybe it is strange to hear this from a human rights defender but I have been documenting war crimes for the past eight years, and the law is not working. The law could not stop Putin. International justice is very slow. People are dying now, people are calling to me now, people are suffering now.

We urgently need fighter planes and air defence systems. It is something that Ukrainian authorities have been asking for from the West for months already – and we get nothing.

It is a huge problem because Russia deliberately attacks residential buildings, schools, kindergartens.We need to protect our sky. In order to do it ourselves, we need long-range weapons.

Also, we need measures to stop the Russian economy and its ability to feed this war.

Only several Russian banks are banned from Swift, the international banking system. We need to ban all Russian and Belorussian banks from Swift because Russia started this invasion from Belorussian territory and is using their infrastructure. Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko’s regime supports Putin in this war.

We need the West to be very honest and to freeze dirty Russian money in their countries. Families of top Russian officials are not in Russia, they are in London, Brussels, Paris. They have to be kicked out of these countries where they are living these luxurious lives.

They have dirty money, stolen from the Russian people. They need to be made to feel responsible for this war. This is a battle of civilisations between autocracy and democracy. Ukraine is at the forefront of this battle.

If you listen to what Putin’s propagandists said, they made it clear that Ukraine is only the intermediate stage and they will go further.

So it is better for the West to stop Putin in Ukraine, not to have to stop him in another country.

I hope we can avoid World War Three but I know the mentality of authoritarian leaders and regimes because I have studied Russia for years.

I have closely worked with Russian human rights defenders. Putin doesn’t understand the language of diplomacy and international law. Putin understands force.

Putin wasn’t punished for the war crimes he committed in Chechnya, Putin wasn’t punished for his crimes in Transnistria, Moldova, he wasn’t punished for the war in Georgia.

He wasn’t even punished for using chemical weapons against civilians in Syria. So, such an irresponsible reaction of the international community provoked Russia to commit further new acts of violence.

We have to stop this circle of immunity. If we don’t do it, it’s only a matter of time before we see what country is the next target.

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I think that Putin made a huge mistake. He knew he would have to face the Ukrainian army but he never expected that he had to face the whole Ukrainian nation. So I have no doubt that sooner or later Putin will lose and Ukraine will win.

Now, we and millions of Ukrainians are providing our input into this general struggle. We have a huge wave of solidarity across Ukraine.

A lot of people have joined the armed forces, whole families have joined the territorial defence forces in different cities.

Ukraine is a nation of brave people. We deserve support from the West.