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. 

“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.

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.

The Moscow Mechanism launches a mission for truth

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

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.

Russia is wiping out Ukrainian cities daily. In the first half of 2025, 6,754 civilians in Ukraine were killed or injured, the highest number for a six-month period since 2022, says Miroslav Jenča, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Europe, Central Asia, and the Americas, UkrInform reports.

Daily shelling of Ukrainian towns and villages with missiles and drones has only intensified, he said during a UN Security Council meeting. June saw the highest monthly civilian casualty count in three years.

In July alone, Russia launched at least 5,183 long-range munitions at Ukraine, including a record 728 drones on 9 July. Kyiv and the port city of Odesa have been hit hardest in recent weeks.

Even Ukraine’s western regions, once considered relatively safe, are no longer spared from massive aerial attacks.

According to official UN data, at least 13,580 civilians have been killed since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, including 716 children. Another 34,115 people have been injured.

“There is no safe place in Ukraine today,” said Jenča.

He stressed that international law clearly prohibits attacks on civilians and that the UN strongly condemns all such assaults.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) said on July 8 that it had issued arrest warrants for two senior Taliban leaders, accusing them of crimes against humanity and gender-based persecution following the group's takeover of Afghanistan in 2021.

The move follows Russia's recognition of the Taliban as Afghanistan's legitimate government on July 3. Russia, which had previously designated the Taliban as a banned terrorist group, became the first country in the world to recognize it.

In a statement, the ICC named Taliban supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada and Afghanistan's top judge Abdul Hakim Haqqani as suspects in a campaign of systematic oppression targeting women, girls, and others who do not conform to the group's rigid gender ideology.

The court said the alleged crimes took place across Afghanistan from the Taliban's return to power on August 15, 2021, and continued at least until Jan. 20, 2025. The suspects are believed to have played key roles in the enforcement of Taliban policies that led to "murder, imprisonment, torture, rape and enforced disappearance."

The persecution was not limited to women and girls, according to the ICC. The court said that men perceived as allies of women or opponents of Taliban ideology were also targeted.

The ICC emphasized that the Taliban implemented a state-led policy of repression that violated fundamental human rights and freedoms across the country.

Most of the international community has refused to formally recognize the Taliban regime due to its human rights abuses and failure to meet international standards.

Meanwhile, since Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 the Kremlin has deepened relationships with authoritarian regimes, including North Korea, Iran, and now the Taliban. Russia has expanded trade with Afghanistan and allowed Taliban officials to participate in Russian forums.

In December 2024, the Russian State Duma passed a law allowing certain groups, including the Taliban, to be removed from the country's list of banned terrorist organizations. The move paved the way for official recognition.

Putin has referred to the Taliban as "allies," and Lavrov has called them "sane people," despite the group's ongoing enforcement of strict Islamic law, including gender apartheid, public executions, and bans on women's education.

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The Kyiv IndependentDr. Gary E Myers

Ukraine’s Oschadbank won an appeal against Russia on July 1 after the Paris appeals court rejected Moscow’s challenge to a 2018 arbitration ruling ordering compensation for losses due to Russia's annexation of Crimea, the bank announced in a press release on July 3.

The Paris Court of Appeal upheld the November 2018 arbitration tribunal decision requiring Russia to compensate Oschadbank for damages incurred when Moscow annexed the Ukrainian peninsula in 2014.

The ruling orders Russia to pay more than $1.5 billion in damages and an additional 300,000 euros ($330,000) in legal costs to Ukraine's largest state-owned bank, according to a press release.

"The victory proves that efforts to force the aggressor state to answer legally for damages caused by the occupation of part of Ukraine's territory have good prospects," said Rosa Tapanova, a member of Oschadbank's supervisory board.

Oschadbank Chairman Serhii Naumov said it's the first Ukrainian bank to win such a case against Russia.

The decision follows Oschadbank's recent seizure of over 87 million euros ($102 million) in Russian assets in France as part of its campaign to recover war-related losses. The bank has been pursuing Russian assets across multiple jurisdictions to enforce the arbitration award.

"We understand that the Russian Federation will never voluntarily comply with the court's decision, and we are prepared for a long struggle," said Arsen Miliutin, deputy chairman of Oschadbank's management board.

"At the same time, we are confident that we will win, and Russia will pay not only the amount of damages caused, but also interest for all this time."

The Oschadbank victory adds to a growing list of Ukrainian legal wins against Russia. On June 23, Naftogaz CEO Serhii Koretskyi announced that an international arbitration tribunal in Switzerland had ordered Russia's Gazprom to pay the Ukrainian state energy company $1.37 billion after the Russian firm stopped fulfilling contract obligations in May 2022.

As Trump ‘loses interest’ in Ukraine, Kyiv scrambles to clarify extent of U.S. military aid pause

When the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) halted the transfer of critical air defense missiles and other weapons to Ukraine, Kyiv and its partners were caught off-guard and are now left scrambling for clarity on the scope and length of the Trump administration’s decision. The White House confirmed the halt after a July 1 report by Politico said shipments were paused due to concerns over the size of domestic stockpiles. The decision “was made to put America’s interests first following a DOD rev

The Kyiv IndependentAndrea Januta