“The word ‘justice’ sounds different in various languages around the world, but it should be understood the same way everywhere, without confusion.” With these words, President Zelenskyy opened the seventh “United for Justice” conference, which aimed to raise global awareness of the scale of Russia’s attacks on Ukraine and their impact on civilian infrastructure and the population.
The Russian army systematically targets Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure, including critical electricity, energy and water supply facilities. Thereby, Russia is causing significant damage to healthcare, education, and agriculture systems, with the aim of creating uninhabitable conditions.
According to the Office of the Prosecutor General (OPG), since February 2022, over 137,000 war crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine have been documented. As a result of these crimes, more than 184,000 civilian infrastructure objects have been destroyed or damaged.
Given the urgent need to investigate and prosecute these crimes, raise awareness, and mobilise resources to deter their commission and effectively address their consequences, this high-level conference, organised by the OPG together with EU Advisory Mission Ukraine and other partners, sought to highlight the scale of these attacks across Ukraine. Furthermore, to assess their impact on Ukrainian civilians and discuss practical steps that can be taken to strengthen responses to the current surge in assaults, as well as any future attacks.
The conference also aimed to discuss the progress made by domestic investigative agencies and the OPG, as well as international actors who document, investigate, and prosecute these crimes; to develop a robust legal policy and advocacy strategy to address these international crimes fully; and to agree on the next steps.
“This event is dedicated to ensuring Russia’s accountability for the mass and systematic attacks on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure. We will continue to unite the efforts of the entire world to punish the aggressor and achieve a just peace,” stated Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin.
The conference was attended by representatives of the European Union and other international institutions, including the International Criminal Court, the Atrocity Crimes Advisory (ACA) Group, leading experts in international law, Prosecutor Generals from European countries, and Ukrainian government officials.
“This conference has addressed something that is really important, namely the deliberate and strategic attempts to destroy the very basis of civilian life in Ukraine. We feel the effects of this every single day, living here in Kyiv or across Ukraine, when the air alerts go off, or the electricity is cut, or missiles fall. That is when daily life is disrupted,” said EUAM Ukraine’s Head of Mission, Rolf Holmboe. And then he added that “we in EUAM, in the wider ACA, and indeed in the international community, stand ready to assist Ukraine in its quest for justice and accountability.”
In a striking visual representation of the destruction, the conference also featured debris from missiles and Shahed drones that have regularly struck Ukrainian civilian infrastructure, allowing attendees to witness firsthand the means by which Russia has been inflicting harm on Ukraine in this unjustifiable war.
“Together, we must achieve one shared outcome – we in Ukraine, and all of us with our partners around the world: a sense that justice has prevailed, and that every person who suffered from this aggression knows that this evil did not go unpunished,” said President Zelenskyy. There was no one who disagreed with this sentiment, once again demonstrating that the entire civilised world stands with Ukraine in its pursuit for justice, being indeed united.