Since 24 February 2022, Russia's full-scale aggression against Ukraine has led to widespread death, suffering and destruction. The war has been marked by documented war crimes, including torture, inhumane treatment, and sexual violence. The aggression has also inflicted extensive and profound damage on buildings and critical infrastructure across nearly every region of the country.

Accountability

A decision was taken at the Council of Europe Summit in Reykjavík in May 2023 to set up, under the auspices of the Council of Europe, the Register of Damage Caused by the Aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine. In April 2024, the Register opened for the submission of claims. The Register has its seat in The Hague (the Netherlands), with a satellite office in Ukraine. It is established for an initial period of three years.

The Register, launched to serve as a record of all eligible claims for compensation for the widespread damage, loss and injury caused by the aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, serves as a key mechanism for individuals, businesses, and the State of Ukraine to seek reparation under international law.

Currently, claims can be submitted in the following categories: involuntary internal displacement; involuntary displacement outside of Ukraine; death of an immediate family member; missing immediate family member; serious personal injury; sexual violence; torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; deprivation of liberty; forced labour or service; forcible transfer or deportation of children and adults; damage or destruction of residential immovable property; loss of housing or residence; loss of individual enterprise; damage or destruction of non-residential immovable property; loss of access or control of immovable property in the temporarily occupied territories.

The establishment of the Register of Damage was the first step towards ensuring Russia’s accountability. Work on a compensation mechanism and on the creation of a Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine, within the framework of the Council of Europe, is well under way. The establishment of the Special Tribunal was requested by the Ukrainian authorities on 13 May 2025 and endorsed by the annual meeting of Council of Europe foreign ministers in Luxembourg the following day.

On 25 June 2025, in Strasbourg, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Alain Berset, signed the Agreement on the establishment of the Special Tribunal, which includes its Statute. Now that the Agreement has been signed, interested parties – including Council of Europe members and non-member states from around the world, plus the European Union – will consider joining an Enlarged Partial Agreement (EPA) on the management of the Special Tribunal. Once states have indicated their desire to participate, the Committee of Ministers will be able to resume the work to establish the EPA.

In parallel, the Intergovernmental Negotiation Committee (INC) on an international treaty to establish a Claims Commission for Ukraine  was meeting on a regular basis, bringing together representatives of more than 50 states from most continents and the EU. Its successor body set up under the auspices of the Council of Europe to finalise the work on the dedicated CoE Convention - the Ad hoc Committee on the Establishment of an international Claims Commission for Ukraine (CAHEC) - met for the first time on 9-12 September 2025 in The Hague and finalised the draft Convention. On 17 September, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe agreed to transmit the draft Convention establishing an International Claims Commission for Ukraine to the Parliamentary Assembly for an opinion.” The Parliamentary Assembly adopted its opinion on 1 October. The Committee of Ministers approved the draft convention on 22 October. It will now be adopted and opened for signature at a diplomatic conference in The Hague on 16 December 2025.

The European Court of Human Rights currently has some 9,300 individual applications pending concerning the conflicts in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the City of Sevastopol and in eastern Ukraine, as well as Russia’s military operations in Ukraine since February 2022. Besides, there are currently three inter-state pending cases against Russia at the European Court of Human Rights which concern the events in Ukraine. On 9 July 2025, the European Court of Human Rights delivered a judgment in an interstate case Ukraine and the Netherlands v. Russia. The case concerned the conflict that began in eastern Ukraine in 2014 following the arrival in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of pro-Russian armed groups and escalated after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine beginning on 24 February 2022. It also concerned the shooting down of flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in summer 2014, killing all those on board, many of whom were Dutch nationals.

The Court held Russia accountable for widespread and flagrant abuses of human rights arising from the conflict in Ukraine since 2014, in breach of the European Convention. ECHR found that Russia was responsible for repeated human-rights violations, for violating the right to life by shooting down flight MH17 and had added to the profound suffering of the crash victims’ next of kin by being uncooperative and obstructive in the context of international efforts to uncover the truth.

Despite the fact that after the exclusion of Russia from the Council of Europe in March 2022, Russia ceased to be a State Party to the European Convention on Human Rights on 16 September 2022, the European Court of Human Rights remains competent to deal with alleged violations which took place before that date and the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe continues to oversee execution of ECHR judgments.

On 8 December 2025, the Committee of Ministers delivered its first decision on this key inter-state judgment. The Committee condemned the unlawful military attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, the conduct of Russian agents in occupied territory and the abduction and unlawful transfer to Russia of Ukrainian children. 

Children of Ukraine

The work on ensuring accountability is only a part of the larger response by the Council of Europe to Russia’s war against Ukraine. Another important area of action is ensuring the protection of the human rights of children of Ukraine, both inside the country and elsewhere in Europe.

In May 2023, at the Reykjavik Summit, the Heads of State and Government of the Council of Europe called on the Council of Europe to take action on the situation of the children of Ukraine and to ensure the protection of their human rights and fundamental freedoms.

As a direct result of the Reykjavik Declaration adopted at the summit, the Consultation Group on the Children of Ukraine (CGU) was created in 2023. It is a unique multilateral cooperation platform dedicated to enhancing the rights of children affected by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine – those who fled to Council of Europe member states, who have remained in Ukraine and who return, including unlawfully deported children.  In its work, the CGU identifies and addresses protection gaps and challenges in order to develop practical tools to effectively address the plight of children of Ukraine.

The CGU works on a wide variety of themes, including access to education, understanding and responding to risks of trafficking of children of Ukraine, enhancing effective guardianship systems for children of Ukraine in CoE member states, providing effective psychological support and trauma-informed care, promoting trauma-informed journalism and addressing the impact of war on children with disabilities. In its current second phase, the CGU is also addressing accountability for atrocities committed against children, with a focus on child-friendly and victim-centred justice and access to remedies. The CGU will also examine the impact of militarisation and indoctrination on the mental health, development and identity of children of Ukraine, as well as technology-facilitated and AI-enabled violence affecting children in conflict, while developing concrete guidance for conflict-related sexual violence against children.

In February 2025, Thórdís Kolbrún Reykfjord Gylfadóttir of Iceland was appointed as the Special Envoy of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe on the situation of children of Ukraine. Her mandate includes fostering international co-operation, raising awareness of the challenges faced by the children of Ukraine and promote Council of Europe standards, initiatives and activities in support of children of Ukraine. She also ensures internal co-ordination and cooperation with all Council of Europe relevant entities, including the CGU and the Register of Damage.

Other support

The organisation has also been consistently providing legal and policy advice to Ukraine, training investigation experts and professionals working with victims of violence, especially women, including through the Council of Europe’s dedicated Ukraine Action Plan “Resilience, Recover and Reconstruction” (2023-2026) with a record budget of 50 million euros.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities have also been active in addressing the consequences of Russia’s aggression and supporting Ukraine and its people.