Please note that this event is fully booked.
Maksym Butkevych, a journalist, pacifist, and one of Ukraine’s most prominent human rights activists, joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine in February 2022. During a battle in the Luhansk region in June 2022, he was captured by Russian forces and falsely tried for war crimes. Two years later, he was released as part of a prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine.
In this conversation with IWM Rector Misha Glenny, Maksym Butkevych will reflect on what he learned from this experience, what justice for Ukraine should look like, and how to remain resilient in the face of a much stronger enemy.
Born in Kyiv, Maksym Butkevych graduated from the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and University of Sussex with a degree in Philosophy and Applied Anthropology. As a journalist, he worked for international sections of Ukrainian TV channels and the BBC World Service. In 2006, he co-founded the “No Borders Project” initiative which provides legal and social support to refugees and other forced migrants in Ukraine. His work includes partnerships with international organizations such as Amnesty International and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). Most recently, Butkevych’s texts have been published in the book Am richtigen Platz: Ein ukrainischer Friedensaktivist im Krieg (2024).
Misha Glenny is an award-winning journalist, author, and public intellectual. He is Rector of the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM) in Vienna and a former BBC Central Europe correspondent. In his journalistic career, Glenny covered the 1989 revolutions and wars in the former Yugoslavia for The Guardian. He has contributed, among others, to the Financial Times, The New York Times, and The New York Review of Books, and held visiting professorships at the London School of Economics, Columbia University, and University College London. Glenny published several books, including McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld (2008) and Nemesis: One Man and the Battle for Rio (2015).
