The creation of an international register of damages caused by the aggression of the russian federation against Ukraine will help to start the process of establishing justice. This was emphasised by Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal in his speech at the roundtable “Support for Ukraine – Solidarity and Responsibility” at the 4th Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Council of Europe.

“The decision to create the Register, which we expect to be taken at the highest international level at this Summit, will be historic without exaggeration. At the same time, it is only the first step towards the creation of a comprehensive international compensation mechanism. Now we must focus our efforts on establishing the Compensation Commission and the Compensation Fund, which will allow us to begin the process of compensating all victims of russian aggression,” said Denys Shmyhal.

The Head of Ukrainian Government also called on the Council of Europe’s member and observer states to support the idea of establishing a special international tribunal for the crime of aggression, saying it was important to bring russia’s political and military leadership to justice.

“Only by bringing the aggressor to justice will Europe be able to prevent bloody wars on the continent,” the Prime Minister of Ukraine stressed.

Denys Shmyhal also noted that nuclear blackmail, the seizure of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, and the unleashing of a full-scale war in the centre of Europe were incompatible with the status of the russian federation as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, which it enjoyed without proper legal grounds: “It is absurd that the aggressor state presides over the UN Security Council. Such a post-war international security system, created after the Second World War, does not correspond to modern realities and requires urgent and substantial reform.”