EU awards top human rights prize to people of Ukraine

It is the second straight year that EU lawmakers have used the Sakharov Prize to send a message to the Kremlin.

People sit in a Kyiv subway which is being used as a bomb shelter (Emilio Morenatti/AP)

The people of Ukraine and their representatives have been awarded the European Union’s top human rights prize for their resistance to Russia’s invasion and ongoing war.

The EU award, named after Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, was created in 1988 to honour individuals or groups who defend human rights and fundamental freedoms. Mr Sakharov, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, died in 1989.