Dear Colleagues,

The entire world is witnessing in horror the full-fledged war that Russia, supported by Belarus, has launched against a peaceful and democratic Ukraine. Russians are committing unspeakable atrocities, including the mass killing of Ukrainian civilians and destroying thousands of homes and infrastructure.

They captured Chernobyl, shelled and caused fire at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, the largest nuclear power station in Europe, triggering a dire nuclear threat for the entire European continent. As of today, thousands of civilians, including children, are being killed or injured. There are over a million refugees relocating from Ukrainian regions affected by severe battles.

We, the Ukrainian legal community, demand a massive and immediate international response to stop and punish the aggressor and its supporters.

There is vast evidence indicating that the Russian army is committing brutal war crimes and crimes against humanity, violating international law. Very sadly, it is now evident that the Russian legal community supports these crimes.

We were shocked by the recent justification of war by the Russian Lawyers Association in its official statement from 28 February 2002 – https://alrf.ru/news/zayavlenie-sopredsedateley-assotsiatsii-yuristov-rossii-v-svyazi-s-provedeniem-voennoy-spetsoperatsi/  The representative authority of the Russian legal community attempted to justify the invasion of Ukraine with blatant lies (the screenshot of this statement is available, and the English translation was provided to IBA).

The Ukrainian Bar Association has reached out to hundreds of managing and senior partners of the leading Russian law firms, many of whom are members of the International Bar Association (IBA) and other international professional legal  organizations. We know that they have read that message, but we received no response, no word of sympathy from any of them.

While leading Russian businessmen, tens of thousands of Russian doctors, scientists, journalists, and other professionals publicly condemned the war, the Russian legal community is supporting it. No Russian law firm or professional legal organization has condemned the war. This is clear evidence that the Russian legal community is not only complacent but is enabling crimes against the humanity their country is committing.

As legal service providers with high ethical standards, Ukrainian law firms have already ceased providing legal services to Russian clients. We welcome similar decisions already made by many law firms worldwide.

We have appealed to the IBA (International Bar Association), whose utmost goal is protecting the Rule of Law, human rights and high ethical standards, asking to: (1) publicly condemn the war and Russian atrocities in the strongest possible terms; and (2) expel their Russian members effective immediately.

We call our colleagues around the world to reach out to the leadership of IBA and other international professional organizations as soon as possible to support our appeal.

Finally, the most critical issue today is to defend Ukraine’s skies against barbaric bombings.  Please support us in our appeal to Western governments to enforce no-fly zone over Ukraine!  This was done by the West on several occasions in the recent history, for example in Iraq and Afghanistan, but none of these occasions were as crucial as the need for it in Ukraine today. 

Please listen to our colleague, a Canadian-Ukrainian lawyer Daniel Bilak, who is in Kyiv right now https://youtu.be/U_kFD6iEYMk

Thank you for your solidarity with Ukraine!