Ukrainian civil society organizations, in cooperation with the Crimean Platform, organized and hosted in Kyiv a large Conference “CRIMEA GLOBAL. UNDERSTANDING UKRAINE THROUGH THE SOUTH.” 

The aim of the event was to bring together experts from around the world, especially from the regions Ukraine haven’t been closely cooperating with over the last decades, in order to establish with them personal connections and build bridges, give our guests a better understanding of Ukraine and simultaneously educate Ukrainians about countries of Africa, Asia, Middle East and Latin America. 

During the event, ICUV experts presented the research studies and analytics into the Russian weaponization of food, “Sustainable Peace Manifesto”, a brief “Sanctions against ROASATOM”, an End war scenarios — policy paper, printed article Why Ukraine Matters, Reasons for NATO to invite Ukraine to the alliance, brief on confiscation of Russian assets #MakeRussiaPay, Research “War. Peace. Future”.

The platform aims to enhance the effectiveness of international responses to the occupation of Crimea, address growing security threats, increase international pressure on the Kremlin, prevent further human rights violations, and protect the victims of the occupation regime. Its main goal is the de-occupation of Crimea and its peaceful return to Ukraine.

Day 1. A peace plan for Ukraine & Global Food Security

On the first day of the conference, we had 2 panel discussions. The first of them with the moderating by Olha Aivazovska: “A peace plan for Ukraine. The global context of the full-scale Russian aggression against Ukraine”.

There is nothing in-between to survive and to die. And this is about compromises with russia now. That’s why we don’t have any other choice than to continue to fight and defend territories and to liberate the people on those territories. Because first of all, it’s about people. Ukrainian civil society learned lessons from history and we know that for 200 years russia was involved or was aggressive side and organized nearly 50 wars. Russia will be fighting all the time against its neighbors. If we do not protect ourselves, international law will not build this capacity to speak about the sustainability of each peace – it will be useless for the next generations of Ukrainians. Our lives are not endless. That’s why we need to protect the sustainability of peace now. Without justice, war will not end for the Ukrainian new generation.

Olha Aivazovska, Head of the Board, OPORA Civil network, co-founder of the International Center for Ukrainian Victory

The peaceful resolution of the international armed conflict and Russia’s unprovoked aggression against Ukraine should take place within a framework of a comprehensive set of measures, aimed at sustainable and irreversible peace. For Ukraine, this war is the result of a long-term confrontation of values with Russia and the struggle for survival of its people, society and the state. For centuries, Russia has been trying to destroy the Ukrainian identity, language, and culture, rewrite Ukraine’s history, and eradicate the intellectual elites. Ukrainians long for peace like no one else. However, such peace must be long-lasting, because the feeling of constant danger, a new attack of even greater aggressiveness on Ukraine’s territory, multiplication of the thousands of war crimes, will not give ground to restore the country and rebuild the global security architecture. It was a discussion of both security guarantees and guarantees of sustainable peace, in which the world is interested, frankly and openly with all partners. The session also focused on how global experiences can contribute to security guarantees, lessons learned and support for Ukraine.

Russia has already strategically lost this war. On a tactical level – it will be a long war and already it is. And any war in terms of victory has some conditions: will and intent, capability, and capacity. And Ukraine has it. Ukraine will end up with the most experienced army and NATO needs it. Joining NATO will ensure a security guarantee cuz partners are supported and allies are defended. Yes, Ukraine needs NATO, but NATO probably needs it a lot as well.

Dr Omar Ashour, Professor of Security and Military Studies at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, Qatar

The illegal war of russia against Ukraine must end and peace must return. Because it does not only affect Ukraine but also international security as well. Peace must be established but not at any cost. It must be sustainable and with respect to international law, human rights, and justice for the victims and to advance of the international governments to prevent these conflicts and wars.

Paulina Astroza, Director of the Centre for European Studies at Universidad de Concepción, Chile

The will to be free is a much more powerful force than the will to conquer. There 3 key messages you should convey to the Global South:
1. Ukraine never harmed any country in the world, Ukraine never colonized any country in the world and Ukraine is not any security threat to any country in the world.
2. Ukraine just wants to be Ukraine. We don’t wanna be russia. We wanna be who we are, for our identity to be protected.
3. Ukraine is a friend of the Global South. Look at our grain and fertilizers, that help your people, your economy, and how we try to feed the world even through the war.

Dr Dino Patti Djalal, Founder and Chairman of Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia (FPCI), Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia (2014) and Ambassador of Indonesia to the US (2010-2013), Indonesia

Next we had a panel discussion moderated by Hanna Hopko: “Global Food Security: feeding the world from under the Russian missiles and amidst the ecocide”. The session discussed how the full-scale Russian invasion affected the food supply around the world and how to overcome its consequences together. And to let to understand more deeply how does the russian war in Ukraine affect global food security we started this discussion by presenting our special video, you can watch it here.

The first part of the discussion was with Ukrainian farmers the de-occupied territories. This component focused on the losses to Ukrainian agriculture from the war, including loss of crop areas, changes in the crop structure, equipment and human losses, and problems with irrigation, possible options for the future of Ukrainian agriculture. 

44% of producers report a catastrophic increase in the cost of production. More than 150 000 farmer workers in the food system were directly affected by the war or forced to migrate. And when we are speaking about local and smaller farmers – we are speaking about families and their destinies.

Hanna Hopko, Co-founder, the International Center for Ukrainian Victory, Head of Foreign Affairs Committee and Member of Parliament (2014-2019)

Russian occupying forces spared nothing: they detonated, sank, set fire to our machinery, and blew up storage facilities. Where they couldn’t blow up, they would shoot the equipment until the very end. The main problems we, as farmers, faced during the occupation of our farms were logistics disruptions. 70% of our machinery during planting crops was destroyed. But the most significant issue for farmers even today is the shelling and landmines in the fields. Taking the first step onto the field was the most terrifying thing. This is a substantial problem not only for Ukraine but also for Europe. We have the largest number of mined areas here. At the same time, we must feed Ukraine and the world.

Serhii Leonov, Head of Rovi Agro,a farm in the Chernihiv region that operates under conditions of constant shelling from Russia and survived the Russian occupation

The role of the Black Sea region in global food security has increased in recent years. Actually what we see: the weaponization of food means the weaponization of hunger. And nothing changed from the Soviet Union time Stalin’s man-made famine organized against Ukrainians – Holodomor. And now russian totalitarian regime is repeating the same tactics by the weaponization of hunger globally. More than 300 000 mln tonnes of grain were damaged and destroyed by russian forces after russia withdrew from the Black Sea grain initiative this July. Can you imagine this number? Can you imagine how many people could receive this food? It’s about millions of people suffering because of hunger also because we are not receiving in time proper anti-air defense systems to protect critical infrastructure.

Hanna Hopko, Co-founder, the International Center for Ukrainian Victory, Head of Foreign Affairs Committee and Member of Parliament (2014-2019)

You can watch the video broadcast of the first day of the conference here.

Day 2. Energy Security

A panel discussion “Energy Security: how the full-scale Russian invasion affected the energy security around the world and how to overcome its consequences together” was moderated by Victoria Voytsitska.

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine back in February 2022, Russia conducted more than 870 missile attacks on Ukraine. It has been violating the basic principles of nuclear safety and security in Ukraine, focusing its main military strategy on Ukrainian civil nuclear facilities and energy infrastructure providing integrity and safety of their operations. On March 4, 2022, Russia conducted an unprecedented act of nuclear terrorism – the seizure of the largest nuclear power plant in Ukraine and Europe – Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Russia’s disregard for Europe’s and global nuclear safety and security, acting as an irresponsible supplier of nuclear power and civil nuclear technologies, and conducting an unprecedented act of nuclear terrorism at ZNPP calls for a common response on an international scale, which the session will aim to address. We also discussed the future of peaceful nuclear energy, based on mistakes and lessons learned from Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Olga Babiy started with that Russia has occupied the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant and nuclear fuel. At the same time, there is an organization tasked with monitoring the circulation of nuclear fuel for energy production – the IAEA. All components of international law that could halt this process should come into play. However, for some reason, this hasn’t happened because at the IAEA level, there are no protocols and regulations recognizing such facts and the actions that international security organizations should take in these situations. We, Ukraine, must now be addressing the UN and all security platforms to discuss changing the rules of nuclear fuel handling in the future under international law when seized by terrorist organizations.

Due to the seizure of nuclear fuel through a terrorist act, Russia poses a threat to the entire civilized world and demonstrates an example of how nuclear bombs can be created from nuclear power plants. All countries should daily emphasize that Russia seized nuclear fuel on Ukrainian territory. This is how this formulation should sound.

Olga Babiy, National Commission for State Regulation in Energy and Utilities, Ukraine

Where are the sanctions on Rosatom? Absolutely extraordinary situation we are dealing with – nuclear terrorism for the first time in history and we don’t see any reaction, from no one – neither from our partners, allies, nor from other countries as well. How Western World can continue cooperating with a country that conducts such an unprecedented act of nuclear terrorism? When it comes to nuclear we haven’t seen from our partners the understanding that it’s important to become completely independent from the authoritarian regime of russia.
Russians are targeting our energy infrastructure and part of it is the one that provides the safety of Nuclear Units. While everyone is commenting “oh, russians will not create conditions for making a nuclear disaster in Ukraine” – I don’t buy it! Look at Kakhovka Dam! We all have to learn this lesson.

Victoria Voytsitska, International Center for Ukrainian Victory, Secretary of the Committee on Fuel Energy, Nuclear Policies and Security and Member of Parliament (2014-2019)

Strikes, shelling, and occupation of Ukrainian nuclear plants were incorporated into the russian battle plan. In the opening stage, we saw that the russian military suddenly and in a blitz took control of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant. And immediately after that – Zaporizhya NPP. So this was their battle plan from the very beginning.

Dr. Can Kasapoglu, Senior Fellow at Hudson Institute, Director of Defense Research, EDAM, Türkiye

You can watch the video broadcast of the second day of the conference here.

Key organizers of the event:

• International Center for Ukrainian Victory
• Media Initiative for Human Rights
• Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union
• International Partnership for Human Rights
• ZMINA Human Rights Center
• Coalition “Ukraine. The Fifth Morning”

With the support of:

• Office of the Crimean Platform