Russia has targeted Ukrainian civilians since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Civilians have been arbitrarily detained, transferred, mistreated, tortured, and even killed extrajudicially as an apparent part of Putin’s war strategy. Thousands have disappeared or are being held without being able to communicate with their families.
In February, 45 OSCE states invoked the Moscow Mechanism to initiate an international investigation into the arbitrary deprivation of liberty of Ukrainian civilians by the Russian Federation as well as to analyze whether these actions constituted war crimes and crimes against humanity and how best to hold perpetrators accountable. The resulting report, issued in April, concluded that the “practice of arbitrary deprivation of liberty of Ukrainian civilians has occurred on a massive scale and has revealed signs of a systematic, consistent, deliberate pattern of conduct targeting specifically Ukrainian civilians.”
The three experts who conducted the investigation will discuss their findings and recommendations. The full report can be found here.
The witnesses will include:
- Prof. Veronika Bílková, Moscow Mechanism Expert, Professor, Faculty of Law, Charles University in Prague
- Dr. Elina Šteinerte, Moscow Mechanism Expert, Member of the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and former Chair Rapporteur of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Visiting Professor at Jersey Law Institute
- Dr. Cecilie Hellestveit, Moscow Mechanism Expert, Senior Researcher, Norwegian Academy of International Law
In addition, a representative of the Government of Ukraine will provide a short commentary:
- Mr. Oleksandr Maznychenko, Counsellor, Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the International Organizations in Vienna
