Russia’s renewed escalation of its war against Ukraine

The ongoing escalation of Russia’s war against Ukraine, including intensified missile strikes and drone attacks on civilians, is causing more deaths and injuries and destroying homes, energy systems and other critical infrastructure – strikes intended, on the eve of winter, to deprive people of heat and light. By rejecting Ukraine’s proposals for a mutual moratorium on strikes against energy infrastructure, Russia is deliberately increasing the human cost of the war.

Conflict prevention and peacebuilding do not mean remaining neutral in the face of aggression or violations of international law. Russia bears responsibility for its aggression against Ukraine and must be held to account.

As members of GPPAC Eastern Europe, we call on civil society, international organisations, and governments to act.

• Global civil society can foster solidarity by partnering with Ukrainian civil society, amplifying Ukrainian voices, and supporting local initiatives. This includes providing direct support to organisations working in war-affected communities and strengthening local capacity for human security and resilience.
   
• International organisations must maintain a clear focus on accountability, including the continued documentation of violations of international law, support for mechanisms to ensure accountability for war crimes and redress for the damage caused, as well as efforts to secure access to occupied territories, prisoners of war and unlawfully detained persons, and to ensure the return of deported children. Their involvement also helps to keep the human consequences of the war at the centre of the international agenda.
   
• Governments must help create the conditions for a just and lasting peace through sustained and comprehensive support for Ukraine in exercising its right to self-defence (Article 51 of the UN Charter), increased economic pressure on Russia, including measures to counter the circumvention of sanctions, and diplomacy grounded in international law and respect for Ukraine’s territorial integrity, sovereignty and agency. This requires rejecting approaches that let aggression and impunity take even deeper root, including recognising territorial changes achieved by force and easing sanctions without the relevant conditions being met.

Across these roles, our goal is a just peace that protects people, upholds international law and strengthens human security in Ukraine, in our region and on a global scale. Only a peace based on holding the aggressor to account and restoring respect for international law can be just and lasting.

As GPPAC Eastern Europe, we are already working across the region towards these aims and welcome cooperation with all who share the same goals.