Iryna Mudra, Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine spoke at the High-Level Experts Conference “United for Justice. United for Heritage” as part of a panel discussion “Next Steps for Advocacy and Accountability”. This conference serves as a platform for discussions between governments and civil society on efforts to ensure justice for Ukraine.

The event is devoted to numerous cases of destruction of cultural heritage due to russian aggression. It brought together a wide range of political and legal experts. Its main goal is to consolidate the efforts of the world community to assess the damages caused by the war to the cultural heritage of Ukraine.

Iryna Mudra dedicated her speech to the topics on legal tools in order to hold russia accountable for the damages caused in Ukraine to cultural heritage. Also she highlighted the importance of cooperation for the protection and reconstruction of the cultural objects in particular with the use of the Register of Damage.

At the beginning Iryna Mudra expressed her gratitude to the foreign partners and all participants of the meeting.

“In Crimea and Sevastopol alone, the occupants have stolen more than 1,2 million cultural property objects prior to the full-scale invasion. As of December 31, 2023, according to Third Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment (RDNA3) the total damage caused to Ukrainian culture heritage and cultural objects is estimated at USD 2,85 billion,” said the Deputy Minister of Justice and added that this number will be definitely bigger.

Then she gave the examples of the objects of Ukrainian cultural heritage, which were damaged due to the missive strikes: “Among the targets of the most outrageous russian attacks there were objects of cultural heritage of the great importance for humanity: World Heritage property “Historic Centre of Odesa”, National Hryhoriy Skovoroda Museum, Ivankiv Historical and Local History Museum, and Karazin National University in Kharkiv.”

According to her, russians are intentionally targeting cultural and religious sites that are not military targets. Therefore, the parties engaged in warfare have the obligation not to direct hostilities against cultural property and must refrain from inflicting damages to such property. Using cultural property for military purposes is prohibited by international humanitarian and criminal law.

“Occupying authorities must protect cultural property under their control from theft, pillage or misappropriation. International law also prohibits the destruction of cultural property as a means of intimidating people under occupation or as a reprisal,” added the Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine. That is why russia cynically disregards erga omnes obligations.

She also mentioned the Preamble to the Hague Convention for the protection of cultural property in the event of armed conflict, which claims that “Any damage to cultural property, irrespective of the people it belongs to, is a damage to the cultural heritage of all humanity, because every people contributes to the world’s culture”.

Moreover, intentional attacks against buildings dedicated to religion, education, art, science or charitable purposes, historic monuments is a war crime as acknowledged by the United Nations Security Council and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

Understanding perfectly the importance of cultural heritage and values to preserve national identity, russian destruction of cultural assets and heritage in Ukraine is an element of a wider pattern. It means deliberate attacks on Ukraine’s identity, history, and memory within a systematic russian genocidal campaign, aimed at erasing cultural identity and destroying Ukrainians as a nation.

Iryna Mudra pointed out that given the magnitude of the russian assault on the Ukrainian nation, preservation of Ukraine’s cultural heritage requires joint efforts of the international community. As well as prompt and effective punishment for the international crimes, committed by the aggressor state and its agents. That is why all perpetrators of such attacks must be brought to justice.

“Mr. Andriy Kostin, Prosecutor General of Ukraine, said the rules on prohibition to destroy cultural heritage are very clear. Does russia care to follow these rules? The answer is “no”. So, what are the legal avenues to bring russia to accountability and to claim for damages caused to cultural heritage available? Are there any legal forms available? The answer is no,” emphasized the Deputy Minister of Justice.

For today, there is no court where Ukraine could apply in order to appeal for and to claim compensations for damages caused by russia. But the russian federation as a state must bear the obligation to compensate for all the destruction and damages caused to the cultural property of Ukraine. For that reason Ukraine, together with international partners works on creation of the international compensation mechanism. The mechanism was already envisaged by the Resolution of the UN General Assembly on 14 November 2022.

Last year, 43 countries and the European Union established the Register of Damages Caused by the Aggression of the russian federation against Ukraine. It was the first component of the international compensation mechanism. The Register as a part of the compensation mechanism will serve as a database for collecting information and different types of damages, losses, and injuries caused to Ukraine and to Ukrainians. Including legal entities of both private and public law on the territory of Ukraine.

In other words, she said, this register will be “a catalog of the outstanding debt of russia” with regards to damages caused due to this full-scale invasion. But the register will remain meaningless if there is no mechanism to enforce compensation claims. Also the above mentioned mechanism will consist of the Claims Commission and the Compensation Fund.

“The russian war in Ukraine is aimed not only at the destruction of our country. It attacks the free world and human civilization. We must join forces to oppose this barbaric destruction and protect Ukrainian culture and heritage. We must unite for heritage. We must unite for justice,” stated Iryna Mudra.