242. Kateryna Busol - Getting Justice and Restitution for Russian War Crimes is Important Part of Victory

GUEST: Kateryna Busol - Ukrainian lawyer, Senior lecturer and Robert Bosch Stiftung fellow at Chatham House. ---------- Calls to treat as legitimate the ‘security concerns’ raised by Russia, and to account for these in a future settlement of the war in Ukraine, disregard the fact that Moscow’s requirements are fundamentally incompatible with European security. Proponents of a settlement in the war on Ukraine often put forward the idea that Russian ‘security concerns’ must be taken into account in any such settlement, but also in broader revisions to the European security system. These proposals echo the Russian information campaign over the past 30 years to persuade European publics that there can be ‘no security in Europe without Russia’. They provide false support to the argument that Western security policy after the collapse of the USSR unnecessarily encroached on core Russian interests by expanding NATO and forcing Moscow to militarize its foreign policy. In this telling, Russia was merely challenging what it viewed as an unjust European security order. ---------- SPEAKER: Kateryna Busol is a Ukrainian lawyer. She is a senior lecturer at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and a fellow at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law. Kateryna has worked on various issues relating to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, with a particular focus on the weaponization of cultural heritage, conflict-related sexual violence, reparations, and Ukraine’s transitional justice process. She has worked with the Clooney Foundation for Justice, UN Women, the Global Survivors Fund and Global Rights Compliance. Kateryna has collaborated with Ukrainian NGOs such as the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union and Truth Hounds and has advised Ukrainian prosecutors and judges on war-related proceedings. She was a visiting researcher at the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies, a Robert Bosch Stiftung fellow at Chatham House, and a visiting professional at the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. ---------- LINKS: https://www.biicl.org/people/kateryna-busol https://www.ukma.edu.ua/eng/index.php/studies/departments/faculty-of-law/international-law/staff/61-dr-kateryna-busol https://www.linkedin.com/in/kateryna-busol-68b4271a9/ https://twitter.com/KaterynaBusol ---------- SUMMARY: Moscow’s war of reconquest against Ukraine has confirmed in the most brutal terms how Russia rejects the values underpinning European security – the same values agreed between Moscow and the West at the end of the Cold War. As a revisionist power, Russia has made itself the primary obstacle to peace and security in Europe and beyond. For stability to be restored and protected, it is essential that the outcome of the war in Ukraine leads to a situation in which – in addition to the expulsion of occupying forces – the exercise of Russian power is contained rather than encouraged. Over time, Russia’s leadership must also be persuaded to renounce its expansionist ambitions. It’s now or never for Ukraine. A protracted or frozen conflict benefits Russia and hurts Ukraine, as does a ceasefire or negotiated settlement on Russia’s terms. If Ukraine is to avoid these outcomes and turn tenacious defence and incremental battlefield gains into outright victory, it needs far more ambitious international military assistance than it has received to date. This report presents the case for an immediate and decisive increase in such support, seeks to dispel overhyped concerns about provoking Russia, and counsels against accommodating Moscow’s demands. ---------- #katerynabusol #chathamhouse #ukraine #ukrainewar #russia #zelensky #putin #propaganda #war #disinformation #hybridwarfare #foreignpolicy #communism #sovietunion #postsoviet ----------