Diplomatic conference for the Adoption of the Convention Establishing an International Claims Commission for Ukraine: Press remarks by High Representative Kaja Kallas

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Good day, everybody,  

Secretary General Berset, dear Alain, it is a great pleasure to be here in The Hague today. 

We are making very important decisions for holding Russia financially accountable for the war damages it has caused in Ukraine. The work the Council of Europe has done to set up the Claims Commission for Ukraine is vital and can make a difference. Everybody here today is on the same page. Russia will not escape the bill for the homes, schools, hospitals it has destroyed in Ukraine. Ukrainians have already filed more than 86,000 claims for compensation, each one of them is a life interrupted and a future put on hold.  

After four years of war, more than 200,000 buildings in Ukraine have been destroyed or damaged, and some 2.5 million homes, houses and flats are no longer fit to live in, and this is only one category of the registry. The Claims Commission now has the task to determine what is owed for this destruction, not in abstract figures but in real losses suffered by real people. 

History shows that it can be done. After Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, for example, or by the Commission for Property Claims in Bosnia and Herzegovina. But every example holds the same hard lesson: justice is a process that takes time. The Commission will be the most difficult to implement, because Russia will never pay voluntarily for the devastation it has caused. This is precisely why the widest possible international commitment is necessary, including from the participants of this International Claims Commission Conference to keep up the pressure. 

Secretary General Berset, you can count on the European Union's full support. Today, I am proud to announce €1 million from the EU to support the establishment of the Claims Commission. As long as Russia refuses to end its war, the number of claims for compensation will continue to go up. We see every day that Russia almost exclusively hits civilian targets. It chooses to strike where it can cause maximum damage to civilians. This is not in accordance with International Humanitarian Law. 

Over the weekend, more than a million households were without electricity because of Russian strikes on the energy infrastructure. Families were left in the dark just as temperatures drop below zero; this is not by accident; it is by design. Russia's terror tactics follow ruthless pattern to freeze cities, to shatter homes, to break the will of the people it seeks to destroy. But this has failed, and we need to make sure it will continue to fail. We do this by increasing the pressure on Russia and strengthening Ukraine's defenses. 

Just yesterday, the EU imposed new sanctions on Russian oil traders and shadow fleet ships. These steps help to deprive Moscow of the funds to wage this war. In parallel, we also work to build up the legal framework to hold Russia to account for its war and other atrocities, also for the crime of aggression.  

All this work sends a clear message to would-be aggressors: if you start the war, you will be held to account.  

Thank you again. 

Link to the video: https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/media/video/I-282709  

Q&A 

Q: Ms. Kallas you said in the last two days that getting frozen assets used for a reparations loan to Ukraine looks increasingly difficult. Do you still think that it is increasingly difficult and is that partly because of pressure from the United States? 

It is difficult because we are 27 Member States, 27 democracies, and that is why usually the decisions we take are extremely difficult. We are at this point where our Belgian colleagues are under a lot of pressure from different sides. My feeling is that the sooner we have this European solution, the sooner the pressure from Belgium will be actually off. Because then it will be a Belgian solution, which means that if you are not happy with the solution, you can go to court against the European Union, because Belgium is just abiding the law, and that is why it is in the interest of all of us in the European Union, as well as Ukraine, that we get this done and we get this done now, and we do not push it any further. 

Q: I want to ask you about global politics as it is actively discussed, in the case of Ukraine too. For example, my question is to High Representative, Kaja Kallas, Ms. Kallas, you, the European Union, many times stated that Georgia could not become part of the European Union with its rhetorics about Europe bureaucracy, about the European Union. Now we see the same narratives in the US Strategy of Security. And what is your answer to that, since Washington's rhetoric now aligns with the Tbilisi’s, are you prepared to accuse the Trump administration of following Kremlin-dictated script, or does this expose a fundamental double standard in your policy towards Georgia? 

Well, the difference is that the United States is not trying to join the European Union. So of course, the National Security Strategy, what we read from there, is not a pleasant reading. We have taken this approach that we are not going to meddle with our ally's internal politics. So, when it comes to Georgia, the main problem is that when on one side, Georgia is saying that they want to join European Union and take the European path. We see the steps going into totally wrong direction by the government. So, it is a signal to the government that as long as they continue with these policies of suppressing opposition, pressuring free media, all these steps that go in contradiction with the values of the European Union. There is no European Union future for Georgia. 

Q: You talked about this Convention representing hope for tens of 1000s of victims. Can you address yourself a little bit to them? Can you put yourself in the shoes of someone in Ukraine who might be seeking some sort of reparation? What is your message for them? 

On my side, I think the message to the people is that we have not forgotten that you have suffered. For any peace, you need to have accountability. And we are taking this very seriously. That is why we are moving on with this Claims Commission. But we are also moving on with the Special Tribunal regarding the crimes of aggression and war crimes, because for any peace, if you look into history all over the world, accountability and justice are very important for the people. It is not even so much that if you get compensation for the full damage, that was caused, some damage cannot be put in numbers as well, but it is more the accountability that there is justice. Every time, if you talk to the people who have suffered in different wars, then they also want to see those who did this damage to be held accountable, and that is what we are striving for here.