Text of the FAR Speech for the Aachen Peace Prize, by Feminist Anti-War Resistance – 29 October 2025

First we would like to thank the Aachen Peace Prize committee for the award and for expressing their invaluable support and solidarity with our activists. We are honored to receive this award together with the Human Rights Defenders Fund (Israel), who are fighting for the rights of women activists under constant threat from their government.

Today we do not show our faces because being here is not only an honor, but also a great privilege and responsibility. Most of our colleagues are in Russia and cannot reveal their faces and names without the risk of being imprisoned or tortured by Russian security forces.

We are receiving this award while there is a war going on and our state is bombing Ukraine every day, while the Ukrainian army and civilians are heroically resisting this unprovoked aggression.

We receive this award while our fellow women continue their struggle in Russia – our movement exists because of their courage and resistance to the Russian regime.

The Feminist Anti-War Resistance emerged on February 25, 2022, as a reaction to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Today we are dozens of autonomous cells and groups in Russia and abroad. Among us are Indigenous activists, LGBTQ+ people, people with disabilities, people with experiences of migration and displacement, and people who have survived various forms of violence and discrimination. We build networks of mutual aid with other anti-war movements and activist groups, in order to unite and politicize more people who are ready to build together the foundation for a future Russia free from dictatorship, repression, militarism, imperialism, and violence.

War is a continuation of patriarchal violence, one of its extreme manifestations, which always affects the most vulnerable and unprotected.

War means millions of people forced to leave their homes, thousands of Ukrainian women wounded, killed and tortured by the Russian military. Forcibly displaced to Russia, Ukrainians live in inhumane conditions, with no support from anyone but their relatives and volunteers, and are under constant pressure from the Russian state. Thousands of Ukrainian civilians are being held captive by the Russian military and nothing is known about their fate. Thousands of Ukrainian children have been kidnapped by Russia.

We often repeat: “War begins at home”. Domestic violence, violence against women, children and the elderly – all of this violence has been encouraged and nurtured by the Russian state for years. It has long ago spilled out of our homes and transcended national borders. All kinds of violence are connected – and they must all be stopped. War begins at home and it must end at home. Because it feeds on violence within our society. That is why feminism is an inseparable part of the resistance to war.

Women in Russia are already facing violence at the hands of soldiers returning from war. Many prisoners who served time in prison for violent crimes have been mobilized, have already returned from the war and are walking free, having received pardons and medals for all their war crimes. Russia is increasingly adopting discriminatory laws that violate human rights. In particular, laws that make life unbearable for LGBTQ+ people in Russia such as the new law prohibiting gender-affirming procedures and changing the gender marker on documents. Thousands of indigenous people continue to live under Russian occupation, and those who try to fight for their rights face systematic repression. Peace is not limited to a ceasefire. We want peace not only without overt military violence, but also without structural violence. Such a peace also requires the full inclusion of representatives of vulnerable groups in any pre-negotiation processes and peacemaking. Such a peace requires active struggle and cannot be fooled by a mere ceasefire.

We call ourselves the Feminist Anti-War Resistance, however we are keenly aware that “anti-war” is not about privileged pacifism, but about recognizing the right of the injured party to self-defense. Ukrainian women cannot say “no to war” when the war has already come to their home. They cannot say “this is not our war”. They are forced to defend themselves and their homes and loved ones – often at the cost of their lives.

We want to be understood correctly: “anti-war” in our case is not the idle waiting for an abstract peace to come when one side runs out of resources. “Anti-war” is a daily resistance to the aggressor and his military and imperial ambitions. Resistance including thousands of women, queer people, activists and feminists. And this award belongs to them.

As long as Putin and this regime exist in Russia, there will be no peace. As long as people and territories are under occupation, there will be no peace. There can be no peace when political prisoners are imprisoned and activists who have fled the country cannot return home safely. Such “peace” does not take into account the rights of vast numbers of vulnerable people. We want peace, but we want a just peace, without occupied territories, without slavery and torture, without prisons and exploitation, without dictatorships, without silencing violence in any form.

We would like to dedicate this award to Russian women and LGBTQ+ people who have been prosecuted for their anti-war actions, identity and views, who are in pre-trial detention centers and prisons. Activists who have survived searches and torture, faced violence for anti-war agitation and for helping Ukrainians. These are not only activists of our movement – these are thousands of stories of resistance to Russian fascism, stories of schoolgirls and pensioners alike. We dedicate this award to Maria Ponomarenko, Sasha Skochilenko, Natalia Filonova, Tatiana Savinkina, Marina Novikova, Victoria Petrova, Masha Moskalyova and all those whom we are unable to name today for safety reasons.

We will donate the cash equivalent of this prize to a Ukrainian feminist organization and to a Russian initiative helping political prisoners. We express our support and solidarity to Ukrainians in their struggle for freedom. Thank you.

The Feminist Anti-War Resistance (FAR) is a horizontal feminist movement. In 2024 the Russian authorities declared it an “undesirable organization.”

This text first appeared on the website of the Feminist Anti-War Resistance.

Except where noted otherwise, original writing and translations produced by the Left Renewal Blog Collective are published under a Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial–ShareAlike 4.0 licence. Republished and translated material remains subject to the licence and terms of its original publication.