The Hague, Netherlands, October 2025
Iryna Dovgan: “Having coped with the trauma [of conflict-related sexual violence] myself, I began to help other women. For many years, I have been working to achieve justice and to help people like me who suffered in the war against the aggressor… And now, when the Register [of Claims for Ukraine] has been established, I cannot submit my data to it; about my losses, about the violence I have experienced. Because everything that happened to me was before 2022. The justice I fought so hard for has turned its back on me.”
This powerful testimony comes from Iryna Dovgan, who was arrested and detained in August 2014, subjected to serious human rights violations, and eventually forced to leave her hometown of Yasynovata, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. Iryna is not alone.
She is currently based in Kyiv and has been working with the Global Network of Victims and survivors to End Wartime Sexual Violence (SEMA) since November 2018.
In December 2025, a new Convention opened in The Hague establishing an International Claims Commission for Ukraine to assess claims for compensation for damage, loss, or injury caused by the Russian aggression against Ukraine. While this is a significant step forward, the Convention’s current mandate extends only to victims of crimes committed from February 2022 onwards.
This means that survivors like Iryna are excluded from the compensation mechanism, and denied the reparation they deserve.
Ukrainian survivor groups are calling on States to amend the Convention’s and ensure that all victims since 2014 are included.
Kostiantyn Davydenko: “Reparation means restoring the opportunities I lost due to Russia’s illegal actions. My persecution by Russia began in 2014, when I lost my home and business and was forced to flee the Donetsk region. It continued in 2018, when I was illegally deprived of my liberty. That is why, for me, there is no possibility of reparation without expanding the mandate of the compensation mechanism”.
Olena Yahupova is a member of Free Civilians, a survivor organisation based in Kyiv, Ukraine. Olena, who was married to a Ukrainian soldier, was detained by Russia’s forces in Zaporizhzhya. Russian soldiers tortured her, demanding that she provide information about her husband and identify pro-Ukraine locals. She was also subject to forced labour, forced to dig trenches alongside other Ukrainian detained civilians.
Andrii Kochmuradov is the head of the survivor-led NGO “29 December” based in Kyiv, Ukraine, which advocates for the rights of former civilian detainees who survived torture and illegal detention. Andrii was illegally detained in October 2017, when he was 49 years old and working for an internet services provider in Donetsk. He was detained together with his wife Olena.
Yelyzaveta Shumska is an activist of the NGO “Numo, Sisters!” Based in Ukraine. Numo, Sisters helps women who have suffered from conflict-related sexual violence, survived captivity and torture.
Azat Azatian is a member of “Way of Free Men”, an organisation of former civilian detainees who went through captivity and torture.
He was detained while he was conducting a volunteer mission in Zaporizhzhia region and taken to a Russian controlled torture facility in Berdiansk.
Iryna Kapalkina is a lawyer and Victims Representative with the Ukrainian Legal Advisory Group (ULAG). Her work focuses on strategic litigation in national and international justice mechanisms to protect the rights of victims (survivors) of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV), and to protect the rights, freedoms and legitimate interests of victims of armed conflict in Ukraine.
Oleksandr Maksymenko is an electromechanical engineer, public leader, and journalist with more than three decades of experience in senior roles across trade unions, public councils, and the media. Since 1987, he has held leadership positions at both regional and national levels, served as an Election commission chair, and acted as an arbiter for Ukraine’s National Mediation and Conciliation Service.
In the media field, he has worked as an editor, columnist, and founder of an online outlet, contributing to national and regional publications while managing digital media platforms. Since 2023, he has served as a freelance contributor to Radio Liberty.
During the full-scale invasion by the Russian Federation, he spent six months under occupation and endured civilian captivity and torture. Today, he is actively engaged in advocacy as a survivor of violence, working both individually and as a member of the Network of Men of Ukraine Who Survived Captivity and Torture “ALUMNI.”
Olena Yahupova is a member of Free Civilians, a survivor organisation based in Kyiv, Ukraine. Olena, who was married to a Ukrainian soldier, was detained by Russia’s forces in Zaporizhzhya. Russian soldiers tortured her, demanding that she provide information about her husband and identify pro-Ukraine locals. She was also subject to forced labour, forced to dig trenches alongside other Ukrainian detained civilians.
Text credit: @redresstrust
For more information see: ‘Ukrainian Survivors Call for States Not to Forget Pre-2022 Victims’
D.S. Lim Photography 