On February 20, from 14:00 to 15:30 PM, the Media Center “Ukraine – Ukrinform” (8/16 Khmelnytskoho St., Kyiv) will host a discussion panel “EAST” as part of the media marathon “10 years of Russian Aggression in Ukraine. The Path to Justice”.
Parallel to the occupation of Crimea, Russia launched another stage of the war in eastern Ukraine. In April 2014, Russian military forces and their proxies seized several Ukrainian cities in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Russia, which denied its involvement in these events, established puppet occupation regimes, the so-called “DPR” and “LPR,” in the seized territories. In response, Ukraine initiated an anti-terrorist military operation.
From the first day of the war in the east of the country, Russian militants began kidnapping civilians and sending them to the “basements.” This is how the enemy started developing a network of torture chambers in the occupied territories.
Ukraine and the international community began seeking legal responses to Russia’s actions. Thousands of criminal cases under the so-called “terrorist articles” did not progress due to the lack of precedents and the fear of judges to take responsibility for such decisions.
In 2020, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) referred to the events in Donbas as a “mixed conflict” — meaning a civil war with an international element. In Ukraine, this stage of the Russian-Ukrainian war was often referred to as “hybrid.” It ended in February 2022 when Russia recognized the independence of the so-called people’s republics and launched a full-scale invasion of the rest of Ukraine.
How has Russia managed to blindside the international community for almost eight years and why has the world failed to call each thing by its correct name? What evidence of Russian presence in Ukraine was lacking for the ICC? Will the court “see” that Russia had been exercising effective control in eastern Ukraine long before the full-scale invasion? How has Ukrainian legislation and the perception of the events by the law enforcement system transformed? How has Ukrainian legislation and the perception of events transformed from the perspective of law enforcement? Why, after so many years, does Ukraine continue to make the same mistakes by not ratifying the Rome Statute?
This will be discussed by the participants of the discussion panel “EAST. 10 Years of Russian Aggression in Ukraine. The Path to Justice”. The event will be available to watch online in Ukrainian and English languages.
Speakers:
- Tetyana Katrychenko, executive director of the Media Initiative for Human Rights;
- Alina Pavliuk, lawyer at the Ukrainian Legal Advisory Group (ULAG);
- Olena Lazareva, an anesthesiologist, former hostage who, on October 16, 2017, together with her husband, was taken hostage by representatives of Russia-controlled illegal armed groups in the ORDLO;
- Oleksii Kodman, a veteran of the Russian-Ukrainian war, former prisoner of war (2015-2017), a scout of the 56th Motorized Infantry Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, convicted by quasi-courts;
- Andrii Leshchenko, Deputy Head of the Department for Procedural Guidance and Support of Public Prosecution of the Department for Combating Crimes Committed in the Context of Armed Conflict, Office of the Prosecutor General;
- Mykola Mazur, judge of the Supreme Court.
Moderator: Serhii Stukanov, journalist
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Organizer of the media marathon: “Ukraine. 5 AM” Coalition.
The event will be held within the framework of the project “United on the path to justice: documenting serious international crimes during the Russian armed aggression in Ukraine” implemented by the Regional Center for Human Rights with the financial support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
FOR YOUR INFORMATION: “Ukraine. 5 AM” Coalition was launched on February 25, 2022, the day after Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Today, the Coalition brings together 38 non-governmental organizations and four individual experts. They have joined forces to systematically document war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during Russian armed aggression against Ukraine. The Coalition is also involved in protecting the victims of the Russian-Ukrainian war in existing national and international justice mechanisms. All of this is aimed at achieving justice by holding the top leadership of the Russian Federation accountable for the crime of aggression against Ukraine.