On 22 September 2026, the international symposium “Ukraine: War and War Crimes” was held at Vienna City Hall. The event was organised by the Ukrainian-Austrian Association in cooperation with the Vienna School of International Studies (Diplomatic Academy of Vienna), Ukraine Office Austria, the Paneuropean Movement Austria and the University of Vienna, with the support of the City of Vienna. The symposium also brought together the Austrian Cooperation Office Lviv and the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Fundamental and Human Rights as part of its broader professional and academic context.
The symposium brought together representatives of diplomacy, public institutions, academia, the military and the international legal community to discuss Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, war crimes, international justice, the establishment of a special tribunal, reparations, the reconstruction of Ukraine and its European future.
Ganna Sarybaieva, Doctor of Law, Associate Professor and Founder of the Open Dialogue Platform (ODP), participated in the symposium.
For ODP, participation in such an international professional environment forms part of its ongoing commitment to strengthening Ukraine’s intellectual presence in Europe through academic dialogue, legal expertise, research and international cooperation.
Particular attention was given to the panel “War Crimes, Special Tribunal, Reparations,” dedicated to the international legal dimension of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. The panel brought together Anton Korynevych, Representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine; Jörg Polakiewicz, former Director of Legal Advice and Public International Law at the Council of Europe; and Andreas Sauermoser, researcher at the University of Vienna and the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Fundamental and Human Rights.
The issues addressed by the panel are of fundamental importance to the contemporary international legal order: how accountability for international crimes can be ensured, what institutional mechanisms are required to deliver justice, and how law can provide effective redress for the harm suffered by victims of aggression.
For the Ukrainian legal and academic community, this discussion carries a particular significance. Ukraine is not merely an object of international legal analysis. The Ukrainian experience is increasingly becoming an important source of knowledge for understanding the limits and possibilities of international law, mechanisms of accountability and the resilience of the European legal order.
This is why ODP considers it essential that Ukrainian scholars and experts participate not only as representatives of Ukraine, but as full participants in shaping the European professional and intellectual debate.
A further focus of the symposium was Ukraine’s role in Europe. The programme featured a special video address by Kaja Kallas, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission, addressing Ukraine’s role in Europe and the broader geopolitical context, the country’s reconstruction and its prospects for future EU membership.
For ODP, Ukraine’s European integration is not only an institutional process. It is also a space of intellectual exchange in which Ukrainian experience, academic knowledge and professional expertise become part of the broader European dialogue on law, democracy and the future of Europe.
It is precisely within this space between law and society, academic knowledge and public dialogue, Ukrainian experience and Europe’s future that the Open Dialogue Platform continues to develop its work in Vienna.
.svg)