Maksym Butkevych

Co-founder and board member of the Human Rights Centre ZMINA, Ukrainian journalist, human rights defender, civil society activist and officer of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He is best known for his efforts to help refugees and internally displaced persons, as well as for countering discrimination. Maksym Butkevych spent over two years in Russian captivity.

He graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, specialising in social philosophy and philosophy of history, and received a Master of Arts degree in Anthropology (specialising in the anthropology of development and social transformation) from the University of Sussex (UK).

His journalism career began in the early 2000s: he worked in the international news department of STB, 1+1 (TSN) TV channels, and was a producer for the BBC Ukrainian Service in London.

In 1990-1991, he took part in the movement for Ukraine’s independence, since 1995 he has been a civic and social activist, and since 2006 he has been an active human rights defender. He coordinated the No Borders project of the NGO Social Action Centre, and in 2010-2011 he worked at the UNHCR. In 2012, together with Tetiana Pechonchyk and Maryna Hovorukhina, he co-founded the Information Centre for Human Rights (now the Human Rights Centre ZMINA). In 2013, he co-founded Hromadske Radio, where he worked as a journalist and presenter for a year.

He was a member of the National Board of Amnesty International Ukraine. He was actively involved in civic human rights initiatives during the Maidan protests. He regularly gave lectures at human rights events, including Docudays UA and the Ukrainian Crisis Media Centre, and conducted educational programmes on human rights, migration, and hate speech.

With the start of the full-scale invasion in March 2022, he joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He served in positions in the Kyiv and Luhansk regions as a platoon commander of the 210th Separate Special Battalion Berlingo, and was captured by Russian forces in June 2022.

In March 2023, a Russian “court” sentenced him to 13 years in prison on fabricated charges. On 18 October 2024, he returned to Ukraine as part of a prisoner of war exchange.

After his release, he intensified his activities in the field of human rights protection: he became a member of the expert council of the Centre for Civil Liberties, and gave public testimonies about his experience of captivity, in particular in Washington, Brussels, Strasbourg, Munich, Vienna, Leipzig and Copenhagen.

On 13 January 2025, he spoke at a special meeting of the UN Security Council in New York on violations of international humanitarian law against Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilians.

On 24 January 2025, he joined the Executive Board of PEN Ukraine. In February 2025, he was also elected a member of the Gongadze Prize Chapter.

Maksym Butkevych was awarded the Order “For Courage”, III class (2025) for his significant personal contribution to the development of national journalism, courage and dedication shown during the war, and many years of conscientious work. He received the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine’s award “Unbreakable”. In 2022, he received the Czech “Stories of Injustice Award” from the organisation People in Need.

In 2023, he was honoured with the Anne Frank Special Recognition Award for Human Dignity and Tolerance from the Embassy of the Netherlands in the United States, as well as the National Human Rights Award, presented by a coalition of leading Ukrainian human rights organisations. In 2024, Maksym received the Ukrainska Pravda Award in the Civic Position category. In 2025, he was awarded by NV for “Significant contribution to the future of Ukraine”.