The conference was opened by the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Among the speakers were Karim Khan, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court; Damir Habijan, Minister of Justice of Croatia; Richard Hermer, Attorney General for England and Wales; Pramila Patten, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict; and Ladislav Hamran, President of Eurojust.
The representatives of the Critical Infrastructure Mobile Justice Team attended on behalf of Global Rights Compliance. GRC Vice President and Director of the Humanitarian Crisis and Critical Infrastructure Division Catriona Murdoch moderated one of the panels focusing on attacks on critical infrastructure and grain.
In his opening remarks, President Zelenskyy emphasised the importance of bringing to justice those responsible for war crimes during the Russian full-scale invasion.
“There is probably no country where they haven’t heard about what the occupier has done on our land and against our people. And it must be that in every country, they know that the occupier will be held accountable for all of this because justice knows no borders. It should be equally valued everywhere – in Europe, America, Asia, Africa, Australia,” said Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Andriy Kostin, for his part, expressed gratitude for the support of international partners on this path and emphasised that much more effort is needed to ensure the guilty are brought to justice.
“Our event today is dedicated to ensuring Russia is held accountable for the mass and systematic attacks on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure. We will continue to unite global efforts to punish the aggressor and achieve a just peace,” said Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin.
Similarly, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, noted that the United for Justice meetings are not just for discussion but for developing real mechanisms to hold perpetrators accountable.
“After these horrific attacks in July, particularly on Ohmatdyt, ICC prosecutors arrived and worked on the ground. Civilian objects are buildings, but behind them are people and their stories. No one can remain indifferent,” Khan said.
Since the start of Russia’s full-scale aggression, more than 137,000 war crimes have been recorded, and over 184,000 civilian infrastructure facilities have been damaged.
Catriona Murdoch highlighted the impact on civilians, food security and trade.
“As is clear, these attacks are interconnected by patterns and policies, and their impacts compounded. The attacks on energy make it impossible to store critical food crops in proper conditions, causing them to spoil. Attacks on water infrastructure and transformer substations mean that agricultural areas are prevented from critical irrigation. It is these reverberating and compounded impacts of critical infrastructure that have also been historically overlooked by prosecutors and investigators, making the contours of this set of violations more challenging.
Yet what is clear is the use of these high-precision weapons systems, the coordinated and combined military forces – fleet and aviation, could only have been authorised at the highest strategic level of command within the Russian Federation Armed Forces” – summarised GRC Vice President.
We should not underestimate the impact of these attacks on Ukraine and externally also on food security and global trade – we should not underestimate the strategic desire for Russia to occupy or annihilate this critical part of Ukraine. GRC have collected reams of statements of intent and rhetoric in the swirl of propaganda, one very prominent state sponsored propogandist stated.
“the war for the ports [them] will be fought without any mercy – for the Western coalition, Odessa, Nikolaev and Izmail are a kind of Stalingrad. Without the Black Sea ports, no Ukraine simply exists”
It is critical to highlight the aims of Russia’s unlawful aggression – an aggressor seeking to destroy Ukraine’s existence and way of life.
The conference focused on raising global awareness about the devastating consequences of Russian attacks, which have affected critical infrastructure such as power grids, water supplies, and medical facilities. During the conference, lawyers and experts discussed progress in investigating and prosecuting these crimes and developed strategies for further actions on the international stage.
GRC has been supporting and advising the Prosecutor Office of Ukraine in its investigations and prosecutions of war crimes in the context of the Russian full-scale invasion as a member of the Atrocity Crimes Advisory (ACA) Group. ACA was initiated by the governments of the US, the EU, and the UK to assist Ukraine in holding accountable those responsible for crimes committed during Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine.