I wasn't even thinking about that, but then I watched all videos, and in hers she spends more time talking about the war than she does talking about her work. I understand she's been affected but that feels out of place here.
Marie Skłodowska-Curie, who got her second Nobel for Radium and Polonium discovery, named Polonium to bring attention to the Russian occupation of her Motherland - Poland. I don't see anything out of place with Maryna Viazovska talking about war as it may be hard to see anything more important than your Motherland, your people, being totally destroyed.
You misunderstood my comment. I said it felt out of place *here*, in a video dedicated to her mathematical work, hosted on mathunion.org (the clue is in the URL). Doesn't mean she cannot talk about the war in general.
As for Marie Curie, I don't think they had Internet and 24-hour news channels back then. I don't need mathematicians to bring attention to the war in Ukraine when everyone is constantly talking about it already.
By then the occupation of Poland had been going for more than a century, so it wasn't about news. And in case of Maryna it also doesn't seem to be about news. It is her well-deserved chance and her choice to say what she thinks is needed to be said on such a momentous occasion.