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War crimes in Ukraine: “Russia will be held accountable”

An apartment building destroyed by shelling in Kharkiv, March 13, 2022. AP - Andrew Marienko

Text by: Daniel Vallot Follow

4 mins

Documenting war crimes attributed to Russia and helping Ukrainians preserve evidence of these war crimes is one of the objectives of the Ukrainian Bar Association, which has set up a call and support for victims of the conflict.

This legal aid should also enable Ukrainians wishing to flee their country to find advice on the right to asylum and on the legislation of the host country.

Interview with Anna Ogrenchouk, lawyer and President of the Ukrainian Bar Association.

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RFI: What is the objective of the call center that you set up after the outbreak of the Russian offensive in Ukraine?

Anna Ogrenchouk

 After the start of the invasion it was chaos: nobody knew what to do or who to ask for help, so we launched our call centre.

Now we have more than 200 lawyers who have volunteered and we have already received 700 requests so far.

These are mainly questions about the different asylum rules in the neighboring countries.

We have a whole network of lawyers abroad who help us in several countries, in Lithuania, Latvia,

, Romania or Hungary.

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In concrete terms, what are you doing to help Ukrainians who want to leave their country, who want to be welcomed in neighboring countries and who hope to take refuge there?

There are people who have lost their identity papers and they ask us if they can leave the country without these papers.

They also ask us questions for their children or their parents if they are sick.

Can they leave the country for medical reasons?

These are the kinds of questions we are asked.

For example, we provided assistance for the evacuation of hospitalized children to Poland.

Your call center is also involved in gathering evidence of war crimes attributed to Russia.

What advice do you give to Ukrainians who, for example, have lost their homes or businesses due to the conflict?

We ask them to have a certificate of ownership, to take a photo of it, and to keep it on their phone.

If it is possible and if it is not dangerous, we also ask them to take pictures of the material damage.

In summary, we tell people how to gather evidence of destruction caused by war.

Together with the Prosecutor General of Ukraine we launched an internet platform which we called “

On this platform, very easily, you can upload the photos of destruction, add your personal information etc. We also advise victims to use applications that already exist.

For example, the “

” application which was created by the International Bar Association.

This application allows you to immediately prove the location, date and time of photos or videos.

It also helps to prove that they are authentic.

Why is it so important to do this work of documenting and conserving the damage caused by the conflict?

We need to collect this evidence and protect it so that we can then use it in court against Russia.

We are lawyers and we understand that all this must be done with great precision because Russia will dispute everything: the Russian authorities will say that it is not they who are responsible, but the Ukrainians… So it is very important to bring together these proofs in the most rigorous way possible.

Do you really think that one day all this evidence can be presented in court and that Russia will answer for these acts?

I am sure that will happen.

We will use all legal possibilities to sue Russia, before Ukrainian justice and before international justice.

All damages and losses will be proven, Russia will be held responsible and must compensate everything.

Nobody thinks as the Russians say that it is a "

".

It is a war and Russia must be held responsible for its consequences.

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