Watch the full speech by Yurii Sheliazhenko from the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement, recorded for the National Alternative Remembrance Ceremony 2022.

Yurii sent this recording to the Peace Pledge Union from Ukraine in advance of the ceremony. The audio was played to the audience in Tavistock Square and online.

Yurii Sheliazhenko is a Ukrainian pacifist, public intellectual and legal scholar. He campaigns for peace, disarmament, the abolition of conscription and democratic civilian control over military affairs. He is executive secretary of the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement, which is a member of the European Bureau for Conscientious Objection, a section of War Resisters’ International and a member of the International Peace Bureau. He is a Research Associate at the Faculty of Law of KROK University in Kyiv. His research is focused on legal theory and history, peace and conflict studies, and the philosophy of law.

The National Alternative Remembrance Ceremony took place in front of the memorial stone for conscientious objectors in Tavistock Square, London. After two minutes' silence, white poppy wreaths were laid at the memorial, in memory of all victims of war.