It will soon be a year since Russia, aided by Belarus, launched its war against Ukraine. It is almost nine years since Russia first unlawfully invaded Eastern Ukraine and purported to annex Sevastopol and Crimea. As the United Nations General Assembly has made clear, Russia’s ongoing use of force, and its purported annexation of Ukrainian territory, are incontrovertible violations of the prohibition of the use of force, amounting to acts of aggression.
The cost of Russia’s aggression is high: to date, many thousands of Ukrainians have been killed, with more gravely injured; almost 8 million Ukrainians have been registered as refugees, with an estimated 6.5 million people internally displaced; civilian infrastructure and assets worth tens of billions of dollars have been destroyed or plundered; and there has been a devastating loss of cultural heritage and economic opportunities.
