Vienna — A panel of independent experts established under the OSCE’s Moscow Mechanism has found clear patterns of violations of international humanitarian law by Russian forces in Ukraine, in a report that catalogues attacks on hospitals, schools, homes and the theatre in Mariupol where hundreds of civilians had sheltered.
The report, published on 13 April, was compiled in just five weeks by three professors of international law — Veronika Bílková of the Czech Republic, Laura Guercio of Italy and Elina Steinerte’s replacement on the panel, Vasilka Sancin of Slovenia — after 45 participating states invoked the mechanism in early March, with Ukraine’s support. It covers the period from the invasion of 24 February to 1 April.
The report, published on 13 April, was compiled in just five weeks by three professors of international law — Veronika Bílková of Charles University in Prague, Laura Guercio of the University of Perugia and Vasilka Sancin of the University of Ljubljana — after 45 participating states invoked the mechanism in early March, with Ukraine’s support. It covers the period from the invasion of 24 February to 1 April.
Russia, which did not co-operate with the mission, dismissed the report as propaganda. The panel addressed its impartiality directly: because it could not enter Ukraine or interview all parties, it relied on verified open sources, satellite imagery and testimony, and applied the same legal standards to both sides — finding isolated credible allegations against Ukrainian forces amid a sea of documented Russian violations.
The Moscow Mechanism carries no prosecutorial power. Its value, the report’s authors write, is to establish facts while they can still be established — preserving a record for the International Criminal Court, national prosecutors using universal jurisdiction, and whatever tribunal the future holds. A second invocation, covering the period since April, is already being discussed in Vienna.
Forty-five states invoked this mechanism. In the OSCE’s half-century, that has never happened before. Whatever else the number means, it is a measure of how far one participating state has travelled from the commitments every participating state signed.
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