Members of the High Council of Justice Viktor Hryshchuk, Oksana Blazhivska, Inna Plakhtii and Vitalii Salikhov call on the governments of the world’s leading countries and international organizations to take effective measures to stop the genocide of the Ukrainian people by the Putin’s regime and actively help Ukraine in fighting the global threat.
They ask to create no-fly zone for Russian aircraft flights and make it impossible to carry out missile and bomb strikes against the civilians and infrastructure on the territory of Ukraine.
From the very beginning of the military invasion the aggressor state has constantly violated the norms of international humanitarian law that guarantee protection of civilians during war. Invaders inflict rocket-bomb and artillery strikes on residential areas, hospitals, schools and kindergartens and houses, churches, fire at evacuation vehicles. They commit systematic and large-scale crimes against humanity, as it defined by the Charter of the International Military Tribunal and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. As a result of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation, 90 children have already died and more than 100 have been injured.
In particular, on March 9, 2022, the aggressor launched an airstrike on children’s hospital and maternity hospital in the city of Mariupol, Donetsk region, and massively shelled the humanitarian corridor. These shameful actions testify not only to cruelty towards civilians, but also to deliberate and targeted actions, in fact, the genocide of the Ukrainian people, which is defined by the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
Fierce heroic resistance from Ukrainian nation to the Russian invader continues every day. The leadership of the state and all Ukrainians constantly emphasize the need to close the sky over Ukraine for deadly Russian aircraft. Determination of the world community must demonstrate that the crime of aggression against Ukraine is unacceptable and criminal responsibility will be inevitable.
Members of the HCJ stress to the international legal community that the Russian Federation must stop hostilities on the territory of Ukraine, and its leadership is held accountable for distorting the concept of “genocide” to justify aggression.
Effective international support for Ukraine can save hundreds of lives, and not only in Ukraine. It is unacceptable to allow the Putin's regime to commit terror, terrible lawlessness and ignore international law with impunity.
The HCJ members call on the governments of the world’s leading countries and international organizations to realize that future of Europe is being decided now in Ukraine and to do everything possible to make it bright, and achievements and values of civilization inviolable. The future of the world is our shared responsibility.