On October 1-2, 2024, the Warsaw Security Forum became a significant platform for addressing international security challenges, particularly regarding Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. The ICUV team, including Hanna Hopko, Daria Kaleniuk, Iryna Krasnoshtan, Viktoriya Voytsitska and Vlada Dumenko actively worked to highlight Ukraine’s critical issues.

The participants focused on the following key goals:

• Continued support for Ukraine
• Sanctions and confiscation of Russian assets – MakeRussiaPay campaign
• European integration
• Genocidal nature of the Russian aggression
• Bankrupt Russia’s War Machine campaign

The ICUV team held more than 15 meetings with prominent political figures. Among them were President of Poland Andrzej Duda, Chairman of the Munich Security Conference (MSC) Christoph Heusgen, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Europe at the U.S. National Security Council Michael Carpenter, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Gabrielius Landsbergis and many others. These meetings were an important part of ICUV’s efforts to promote international support for Ukraine and strengthen sanctions against Russia.

During the meeting with Ukraine’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Andriy Sybiga, we discussed strategies to promote the idea of Ukraine’s victory in the war against Russia among our international partners. We also focused on communication tactics that would secure ongoing military support from our allies at the global level.

Important events for us were the panel discussion “Strategic Ambiguity and Military Deterrence: Restoring Initiative vs Russia”, in which our co-founder Daria Kaleniuk actively participated, as well as a roundtable discussion on “The Genocidal nature of the Russian war against Ukraine”, organised in partnership with the Warsaw Security Forum. The moderator of this discussion was Hanna Hopko, and among the speakers was Victoria Voytsitska.

During the panel discussion, Daria focused on the strategic advantages in the fight against Russian aggression. She also focused on the issues of “magical and reality measures” in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian war.

The roundtable discussion, which gathered more than 80 participants, brought together a member of the Polish Sejm, Deputy Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee Radosław Fogiel, former US Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Stephen J. Rapp, and the head of the Sejm and Senate delegations to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly Michał Szczerba.

Hanna Hopko emphasised that it is important to de-imperialise and decolonise Russia. Victoria Voytsitska stressed that Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure are an act of genocide. These issues were central to the discussion of the nature of the war and the need for an international reaction to the aggression.

Since the beginning of the war, Russia has committed numerous crimes, including the destruction of civilians, deportations, torture and massacres. Since 2022, more than 137,000 war crimes have been documented, and more than 84,000 civilian infrastructure objects have been damaged. More than 20,000 Ukrainian children have been deported to Russia, and thousands of soldiers and civilians have been captured.

Russia’s threats to use nuclear weapons remain another serious concern, which is yet another example of aggression and terror against the Ukrainian people and the entire world.

It was stressed the need to establish an international tribunal for the entire Russian regime. Recognition of Russian aggression as genocide is urgent. Our goal is to stop Russian imperialism and prevent the return of genocide.

It’s time to act, including with the recognition of the genocidal measure of the war, because that would send the strongest signal to Kremlin that they should stop this aggression and they should absolutely just get out of Ukraine once.

Victoria Voytsitska, Energy Advocacy Director