Dmitry Muratov, the joint Russian winner of last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, said he will donate his medal to help Ukrainian refugees.

On Tuesday, Mr Muratov said he and the Novaya Gazeta newspaper would donate the gold medal to a fund providing aid to Ukrainian refugees. The announcement was made on the newspaper’s website. 

“Novaya Gazeta and I have decided to donate the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize Medal to the Ukrainian Refugee Fund,” Mr Muratov said. “There are already over 10 million refugees. I ask the auction houses to respond and put up for auction this world-famous award.”

Last year, Mr Muratov, editor of Russia’s leading opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta, was awarded the 2021 peace prize alongside Maria Ressa of the Philippines for their efforts “to safeguard freedom of expression.”

Mr Muratov had previously refused to “take or receive even one single cent” of the money that came with the peace prize, telling the United Nations in an interview that an editorial board meeting was held to determine how to distribute it.

The newspaper instead donated the cash prize to health foundations that helps journalists, supports children with serious rare diseases as well as a children’s hospice in Moscow, a clinic that treats children with leukemia and the Anna Politkovskaya Prize Foundation — which was established in memory of a Novaya Gazeta journalist who was murdered in 2006.

After the invasion of Ukraine started on February 24, Novaya Gazeta said it would not cover the events, citing Russia’s new laws on reporting on the military, which means the media had to describe Russia’s actions in Ukraine as a “military operation.”