The ICUV team initiated the advocacy year with a significant visit to Italy. Our experts participated in a conference in the Senate where we presented the findings of our research into the confiscation of Russian assets. We also held meetings with parliamentarians, government officials, prominent Italian journalists, as well as representatives from the church and engaged Ukrainian communities in order to raise their awareness about the historic role of Ukrainian victory, and provided them with updates on the situation on the ground. Also, we discussed economic stabilization, weaponization of food including the findings of the respective ICUV research, the situation in the Black Sea region, sanctions, confiscation of Russian assets, and the post-victory agenda, sustainable peace, and tribunal for the Russian aggression.

Why Italy?

This year, Italy has taken on the presidency of the G7. We are optimistic that under the leadership of Italy’s Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, and with the active support of the Italian people, there will be a conducive environment for generating the political will necessary to make substantial decisions that can expedite Ukraine’s path to victory.

Our objective is to ensure that Ukraine holds a prominent position on the agenda during Italy’s presidency of the Group of Seven. We aim to advocate for the inclusion of Ukraine in discussions and decisions that will contribute to its progress and ultimate success.

Conference in Senate: main focus on confiscation of Russian assets and toughening sanctions

On 17 January, ICUV experts took part in a conference in the Italian Senate “Towards an international mechanism of compensation for victims of the Russian invasion of Ukraine”.

The event was organized by Senator Giuliomaria Terzi di Sant’Agata in cooperation with the Italian Federation for Human Rights (FIDU).

The conference was moderated by: Antonio Stango, President of the Italian Federation for Human Rights

Speakers: Eleonora Mongelli, Vice President of the Italian Federation for Human Rights, ICUV co-founders Hanna Hopko and Olena Halushka, ICUV analyst and military medic Tata Marharian, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Eurasian Foreign Policy Studies Olena Snigyr.

“If we look at the way the Russians and their allies are weaponizing a number of basic facts of life in the international community. They’re weaponizing migration, weaponizing food, energy, information, truths, information through the spread of the most heinous and hateful propaganda, hatred. And they’re weaponizing over the last few months, even more intensely, freedom of navigation, free lanes of transport and the high sea. They are really blackmailing all states. All this needs a not only concept, but a policy strategy, a coherent approach in the national community by as many countries as possible, surely Euro Atlantic, community. But it needs a lot of push and willingness, political willingness, to find the way to compensate Ukrainian people. So this is the specific aspect of compensation I think is on the table today”

 — said in his opening remarks, Senator Giuliomaria Terzi di Sant’Agata

Participants discussed various aspects of Russia’s pressure on the international community. In particular, the blockade of the Black Sea and the threat to global food security, security threats for European and global safety and the importance of military support for Ukraine.

“In the Black Sea we did a miracle. Ukrainian armed forces and special operation forces managed to deblockade the grain corridor and export agricultural commodities. It’s a success and for this year we expect have air superiority or air parity when Ukraine will get F16, more long-range missiles, more anti-air defence systems. This is a part of victory strategy, and we are preparing now a resolution in European Parliament strategy of military victory in Ukraine”

— said Hann Hopko.

In her speech, Olena Snigyr stressed that Moscow’s launching of a new war depends on Ukraine’s victory or freezing of the ongoing conflict. In her view, as long as the fighting continues, Russia is unlikely to open a second front. The main issue, however, is that Ukraine, lacking the necessary weapons, may exhaust its human resources. Therefore, Ukraine needs long-term sustained support to win this war.

The common opinion of the conference was that the confiscation of Russian assets in favour of Ukraine is fair.

“The freezing of the assets was a countermeasure that was adopted in the first days of the full scale war, but it did not bring the necessary outcome, which is stopping the war and make Russia withdraw from Ukraine. Meaning that as two years of the full scale war, the countermeasure should logically be toughened because the scale of damages inflicted is as far incomparable with the beginning of the full scale war”

— said Olena Haluska.

Eleonora Mongelli holds the view that it is imperative to mete out punishment to those individuals who have committed or are presently committing crimes, and advocates for imposing financial penalties on Russia. She sees the confiscation of Russian assets as one of the viable methods to achieve this goal.

“We need to act together as a coalition with democratic countries and take concrete steps forward. So freezing assets is not enough. International law poses no obstacle to transferring Russia’s assets to Ukraine, as alighted by several expert reports, since this constitutes a proportionate confirmation of Russia’s violations of the international law. And also in addition, we need to make sanctions more effective and in this sense also implement additional sanctions, particularly targeting high-tech goods and to prevent Russia from overcoming them and expanded its production of weapons and their components”.

— said Eleonora Mongelli.

According to the participants, there is significant importance in focusing on reinforcing sanctions against the aggressor country, particularly placing emphasis on technical sanctions.

“We must speak about weakening Russia’s ability to lead war against Ukraine.  Russia has support of China, Iran, North Korea, and it still continues to increase its ability to fight against Ukraine and the NATO alliance overall. We thought that sanctions work and Russia will slow down its ability to manufacture UAVs, rockets and etcetera, but we’ve seen that this is not the case. So what we should do is we should go in two ways. The first way is, we should prevent Russia from obtaining foreign particles and components to manufacture its drones and rockets”

—said Tata Marharian at the conference.

High-level meetings

During the visit, the Ukrainian delegation conducted fruitful meetings with representatives of the Foreign Affairs and European Union Affairs Committees, led by Mr. Tremonti, the President of the Chamber of Deputies Foreign Affairs Committee, Brothers of Italy, and Mr. Terzi, the Head of the Senate European Union Affairs Committee.

Additionally, we engaged with members of Parliament, including Senator Borghi from the Democratic Party, Benedetto Della Vedova, who currently presides over Forza Europa (FE), Lia Quartapelle, an MP of the Democratic Party (PD) and Party Leader of the Commission of Foreign and European Affairs of the House of Representatives, and others.

We also met with government representatives, including Ambassador Davide La Cecilia, the Special Envoy of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation for the Reconstruction Process of Ukraine.

In the realm of the expert community, we held discussions with representatives of Italian think tanks and NGOs, including experts from the Italian Federation for Human Rights (FIDU).

Furthermore, a meeting took place with representatives of the Embassy of Ukraine in Rome and the Vatican.

Wide media coverage

The visit of the Ukrainian delegation was covered by the top Italian media. As a result, interviews and publications were in:

La Repubblica Russia, bisogna confiscare

Viva Italia Cari italiani, date a noi ucraini i beni russi confiscati

IL FOGGLIO

Radio Radicale La guerra russa all’Ucraina: intervista ad Hanna Hopko e Olena Halushka

Formicce Confiscare i beni russi nei Paesi del G7. Ecco come continuare ad armare Kyiv

Linkiesta.it La vera sanzione: La confisca dei beni russi spezzerebbe il ciclo dell’influenza negativa di Putin

Meeting with the Ukrainian community and a rally in support of Ukraine

One of the most heart-warming moments of the visit was a dinner with representatives of the active Ukrainian community, our diaspora. We had the opportunity to discuss our work and advocacy goals for this year, as well as discuss potential collaborations on joint projects.

We would like to thank Svitlana Tereshchenko, Oles Horodetsky, the Chairman of the Christian Society of Ukrainians in Italy, and Marina Reshetar for support and friendship.

The culmination of the advocacy visit was a large rally in Modena, Italy, organised by the Ukrainian community with support of our partners Communities Armies Ukraine. Hundreds of people took to the streets against russian propaganda.

Activists also took a huge receipt where damages to Ukraine were calculated and urged confiscating russian sovereign assets $300 bn chanting “Make Russia Pay”.