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  • ✇Euromaidan Press
  • While missiles hit Kyiv, the OSCE throws itself a birthday party
    More than a thousand guests from different countries arrived in Helsinki on 31 July. Exactly half a century ago, this city hosted the signing of the Helsinki Final Act – a crucial step toward reducing East-West tensions and détente in the Cold War. But here’s what makes this anniversary particularly grim: while diplomats gathered to celebrate 50 years of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Russian missiles were raining down on Kyiv. Thirty-one people died that day, i
     

While missiles hit Kyiv, the OSCE throws itself a birthday party

3 août 2025 à 16:31

OSCE needs Reform Helsinki accords

More than a thousand guests from different countries arrived in Helsinki on 31 July. Exactly half a century ago, this city hosted the signing of the Helsinki Final Act – a crucial step toward reducing East-West tensions and détente in the Cold War.

But here’s what makes this anniversary particularly grim: while diplomats gathered to celebrate 50 years of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Russian missiles were raining down on Kyiv.

Thirty-one people died that day, including five children. Another 159 were wounded.

The timing reveals everything wrong with international institutions today. As rescue workers dug bodies from rubble in Ukraine’s capital, officials in Helsinki discussed reforms needed for an organization that can’t even secure the release of its own kidnapped staff members.

The fundamental contradiction

The OSCE emerged from the 1975 Helsinki Accords, establishing key principles including:

  • territorial integrity
  • non-use of force
  • peaceful settlement of disputes
  • and respect for human rights.

These weren’t abstract ideals – they represented a hard-won consensus between East and West that helped end the Cold War.

Today, one OSCE member state – Russia, assisted by another member, Belarus – has systematically violated every single Helsinki principle.

Moscow has seized and illegally annexed one-fifth of Ukraine’s territory, killed hundreds of thousands, kidnapped tens of thousands more, and reduced hundreds of villages to ruins. Russian forces have systematically raped Ukrainian women and men, while deporting and forcibly adopting Ukrainian children.

According to data from the ZMINA Human Rights Center and the Media Initiative for Human Rights, between 5,000 and 6,000 Ukrainian citizens face politically motivated persecution by Russia, including both military personnel and civilians. Occupation authorities prosecute them for crimes they didn’t commit – or for things that shouldn’t be crimes at all.

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Ukraine’s Foreign Minister recently stated that “a country that has violated all ten fundamental principles of the Helsinki Act should not hold a place in this organization.”

Among the victims: three OSCE staff members themselves.

When the organization abandons its own

Russians kidnapped three representatives of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission – translator Maksym Petrov and security assistants Dmytro Shabanov and Vadym Golda – in April 2022 in Donetsk and Luhansk, where they were performing duties under a mandate granted by all 57 OSCE member states.

In September 2022, Petrov and Shabanov were charged with “treason” and sentenced to 13 years in prison following a sham trial in occupied Luhansk. Golda was found guilty of “espionage” by a “court” in Donetsk in July 2024 and sentenced to 14 years.

From left Maksym Petrov, Dmytro Shabanov Photo by necessity from the video footage produced for ’LNR’ and Russian propaganda channels. Credit: KHPG

All three endured torture, inhumane detention conditions, and denial of proper medical treatment. The OSCE itself acknowledged that they were imprisoned on fabricated charges.

And yet? Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov – representing the country that kidnapped these OSCE employees – continued receiving invitations to OSCE meetings.

For four consecutive years now, Maksym Petrov, Dmytro Shabanov, and Vadym Golda remain in Russian captivity. Their names are regularly mentioned at various OSCE meetings. The Russian Federation often sits in the hall, continuing with particular cynicism to ignore calls for the release of OSCE workers.

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The consensus trap

This raises the fundamental question hanging over international institutions today: How can a country that systematically violates every key principle of an organization remain a member? And how can OSCE base its work on consensus when that same violator holds veto power?

The answer should be clear: Russia must be expelled from the OSCE.

The OSCE’s founding documents contain no procedure for expelling a state that undermines the organization’s foundation. This isn’t an oversight – it’s a feature that made sense during détente but has become a fatal flaw in an era of revanchist authoritarianism.

The implications extend far beyond Europe. When institutions designed to maintain international order prove incapable of responding to systematic violations, it signals to other potential aggressors that the rules-based system has no teeth.

China watches how the West responds to Russia’s war. Iran observes whether international law has enforcement mechanisms. North Korea notes whether treaties mean anything.

The Ukrainian laboratory

Ukraine has become an unwitting laboratory for testing whether international institutions can function against determined spoilers. The results are sobering:

  • the UN Security Council remains paralyzed by Russian vetoes,
  • the International Criminal Court issues arrest warrants that go unserved,
  • and the OSCE continues operating under consensus rules that allow violators to block accountability measures.

Yet Ukrainian civil society continues working within these frameworks, understanding that abandoning international institutions entirely would leave smaller nations even more vulnerable. Organizations like the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, founded after the 1975 accords, used Helsinki principles to monitor human rights and demand Soviet compliance. That patient work contributed to the USSR’s eventual collapse.

The question now is whether international institutions can evolve fast enough to remain relevant.

Reform or irrelevance

The Civic Solidarity Platform – representing over 100 human rights organizations from the OSCE region – released a manifesto during the Helsinki anniversary that bluntly acknowledged reality:

“The OSCE is in crisis due to such key factors as its inability to prevent and stop Russian full-scale aggression against Ukraine” and “abuse of the consensus principle limits effective decision-making.”

Even civil society advocates admit the system is broken. But manifestos won’t save kidnapped OSCE workers or stop Russian missiles.

If the OSCE’s foundational documents lack procedures for addressing fundamental violations, perhaps it’s time to consider refounding the organization under new rules.

The manifesto calls for states to “use all appropriate OSCE tools, including the Moscow Mechanism, wherever large-scale violations of the Helsinki principles occur” and urges the organization to “strengthen its institutions” while being “open to civic scrutiny and participation.” But these recommendations assume good faith from systematic violators.

The broader lesson extends beyond any single institution. When faced with actors who systematically abuse international frameworks while claiming their protections, those frameworks must adapt or become irrelevant.

Rescuers carry a body recovered from the death toll yesterday's russian air assault kyiv reaches 31 2‑year‑old among victims city mourns local woman stands site search rescue operations near destroyed residential building sviatoshynskyi district 1 2025 suspilne/nikita rubble of a destroyed building in Sviatoshynskyi district of Kyiv on 1 August 2025. Source: State Emergency Service of Ukraine.
Rescuers carry a body recovered from the rubble of a destroyed building in Sviatoshynskyi district of Kyiv on 1 August 2025. Source: State Emergency Service of Ukraine.

As rescue workers in Kyiv cleared rubble from Russian strikes during OSCE’s anniversary celebration, the organization’s existential crisis became impossible to ignore. Institutions that cannot protect their own staff members – or respond meaningfully to the largest European war since 1945 – may have outlived their usefulness.

The choice facing the OSCE, like other international institutions, is stark: reform to address systematic violators, or preside over the gradual erosion of the rules-based international order they were designed to protect.

Tetiana Pechonchyk is head of the board at the Ukrainian human rights NGO ZMINA, a member of the 5 AM coalition initiative to document Russian war crimes.

A Ukrainian-language version of this op-ed was initially published on Zmina.info

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  • ✇Euromaidan Press
  • “They broke all 10 rules”: Ukraine calls to eject Russia from OSCE
    Moscow is blocking the organization’s work, which was supposed to monitor its war crimes in Ukraine.  Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha states that Russia should no longer be a member of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), UkrInform reports.  According to him, Moscow is obstructing the OSCE’s activities because the organization’s mission was to document numerous violations of international law, including Russia’s war crimes. “A country that has violated all
     

“They broke all 10 rules”: Ukraine calls to eject Russia from OSCE

2 août 2025 à 10:18

OSCE

Moscow is blocking the organization’s work, which was supposed to monitor its war crimes in Ukraine.  Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha states that Russia should no longer be a member of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), UkrInform reports. 

According to him, Moscow is obstructing the OSCE’s activities because the organization’s mission was to document numerous violations of international law, including Russia’s war crimes.

“A country that has violated all ten fundamental principles of the Helsinki Act should not hold a place in this organization,” Sybiha emphasizes.

What are the Helsinki Act principles?

The Helsinki Act of 1975 is not a legally binding treaty but a political document containing key norms of international law that form the basis of European security. The ten principles include:

  • Sovereign equality of states
  • Refraining from the threat or use of force
  • Inviolability of frontiers
  • Territorial integrity of states
  • Peaceful settlement of disputes
  • Non-intervention in internal affairs
  • Respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms
  • Equal rights and self-determination of peoples
  • Cooperation among states
  • Fulfillment of obligations under international law

Russia has systematically violated these principles since annexing Crimea in 2014, conducting the war in Donbas, and, since 2022, waging all-out war. These violations include illegal use of force, breaches of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, interference in internal affairs, and gross human rights abuses, including war crimes.

Ukraine insists on reform

Sybiha reminds that the OSCE was created in very different geopolitical circumstances during the Cold War, but today, Russia has turned the organization into a tool for advancing its own interests.

In 2022, Russia blocked the extension of the mandate of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, which had previously operated in Donbas. Since then, the OSCE supports Ukraine through other programs but without a direct presence in combat areas.

“It cannot be that one country blocks the work of the entire organization, which aims to enhance security. Russia is the main cause of instability in Europe,” the minister stresses.

Ukraine insists on reforming the OSCE and expelling the aggressor country from its membership to restore the organization’s trust and effectiveness.

You could close this page. Or you could join our community and help us produce more materials like this. We keep our reporting open and accessible to everyone because we believe in the power of free information. This is why our small, cost-effective team depends on the support of readers like you to bring deliver timely news, quality analysis, and on-the-ground reports about Russia's war against Ukraine and Ukraine's struggle to build a democratic society. Become a patron or see other ways to support
  • ✇Euromaidan Press
  • “Moscow mechanism” will now investigate Russia’s killings of Ukrainian POWs at request of 41 nations
    The world demands the truth. International response to Russia’s brutality is growing stronger, as the Netherlands and 40 other OSCE countries initiate an independent investigation into the torture of Ukrainian prisoners of war. Russia holds an estimated 8,000 Ukrainian soldiers in captivity. Additionally, around 60,000 Ukrainians are considered missing, many of whom may also be detained in Russian prisons. Over 90% Ukrainian prisoners who return from captivity say Russian guards beat, torture t
     

“Moscow mechanism” will now investigate Russia’s killings of Ukrainian POWs at request of 41 nations

26 juillet 2025 à 12:07

Ukrainian prisoner of war returned after Russian captivity.

The world demands the truth. International response to Russia’s brutality is growing stronger, as the Netherlands and 40 other OSCE countries initiate an independent investigation into the torture of Ukrainian prisoners of war.

Russia holds an estimated 8,000 Ukrainian soldiers in captivity. Additionally, around 60,000 Ukrainians are considered missing, many of whom may also be detained in Russian prisons. Over 90% Ukrainian prisoners who return from captivity say Russian guards beat, torture them with different tools, such as electric shock devices. They are deprived of food, water, sleeping conditions, and forced to sing Russian national anthems. 

The Moscow Mechanism launches a mission for truth

The investigation will be conducted under the OSCE’s Moscow Mechanism.

This mechanism a special formal procedure that allows OSCE participating states to establish short-term international expert missions to investigate human rights violations and humanitarian consequences in a specific region. 

Systematic crimes of Russia will be documented

Since the start of Russia’s all-out war, this mechanism has been used to document war crimes, the deportation of children, torture of civilians, and widespread human rights violations, reports Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War. 

The new investigation will establish facts regarding the torture of Ukrainian POWs, and this evidence will become the basis for convictions in Ukrainian courts, the International Criminal Court, and a tribunal on the crime of aggression against Ukraine.

“He said we deserve genocide”: Journalists unmask Russian “Dr. Evil” torturer of Ukrainian POWs

The goal is justice, not revenge

“The Netherlands and its partner countries are working to uncover the truth and ensure accountability for Russia’s war crimes in Ukraine,” says Dutch Foreign Minister Kaspar Veldkamp.

As noted by Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, this process is critical to ensuring that no act of cruelty goes unpunished.

Previously, a special OSCE monitoring mission operated in Ukraine to observe the situation during Russia’s 2014 invasion of Donbas. In mid-2022, Moscow blocked the extension of the SMM’s mandate, and the mission ceased operations.

Since then, the OSCE has continued to support Ukraine through other programs, including an extra-budgetary assistance initiative, though without a direct monitoring presence in active combat zones.

You could close this page. Or you could join our community and help us produce more materials like this. We keep our reporting open and accessible to everyone because we believe in the power of free information. This is why our small, cost-effective team depends on the support of readers like you to bring deliver timely news, quality analysis, and on-the-ground reports about Russia's war against Ukraine and Ukraine's struggle to build a democratic society. Become a patron or see other ways to support
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