Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Sacker.

Today I'm in the Norwegian capital, Oslo, to meet two of the three winners of this year's Nobel Peace Prize.

The Nobel Committee described this year's joint award as a tribute to the power and importance of civil society activism. It went to the Center for Civil Liberties in Ukraine,

the Memorial Organization in Russia, and to the imprisoned political dissident Alas Bielatsky from Belarus.

Now, for obvious reasons, Mr. Bielackky is unable to be here in Oslo.

But representatives from the organisations in Kiev and Moscow are here.

Alexandra Matvichuk is head of the Centre for Civil Liberties in Ukraine, and Jan Rachinsky is chair of the board of Memorial.

In previous years, I've interviewed joint peace prize winners together.

This year, the Ukrainians were unwilling to do that, so I talked to them separately.

In itself, that's one telling indication of the sensitivities stirred by this year's

Nobel Committee decision, coming as it does, in the middle of a brutal war

sparked by Russia's all-out invasion of Ukraine last February. In the face of authoritarian aggression,

how can civil society organizations resist? Well, first to Alexandra Matvichuk, head of the Civil Liberties

Center in Ukraine. Welcome to Hard Talk. Thank you. I have to ask you, now that you are

away from Kiev, from your home, you're here in Oslo to receive the prize, how strange does it feel?

It's a huge contrast.

Now we know that everything in which we call normal life

and take for granted is very fragile.

The most positive is that there are a lot of things

which became secondary

and there are several things

you have a sharp feeling that are important

...