Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy beseeched thousands of lawyers from around the globe who were attending this year’s annual International Bar Association conference on Sunday to join efforts to hold Russia accountable for its aggressions against his country.

Zelenskyy addressed more than 5,000 lawyers from 130 jurisdictions gathered for the conference’s opening ceremony, calling them “defenders of the law and human rights” and thanking them for paying attention to the Ukrainian “struggle for freedom.”