Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (left) and Alain Berset, secretary general of the Council of Europe, at a meeting at The Hague Global Forum, Netherlands, December 16, 2025. SEM VAN DER WAL / AFP
Russia is the aggressor and must therefore pay. That is the founding principle of the convention adopted by 34 countries, as well as by the European Union, during a diplomatic meeting held in The Hague on Tuesday, December 16, under the aegis of the Council of Europe. The convention established an International Claims Commission for Ukraine. Among the signatories are the main EU member states, as well as a few non-EU countries such as the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Iceland.
"Russia will not escape the bill for the homes, schools,and hospitals it has destroyed in Ukraine," declared Kaja Kallas, the European Union's high representative for foreign affairs. "Our task is clear: to record the truth, to provide redress and to hold those responsible to account," explained Alain Berset, secretary general of the Council of Europe, the Strasbourg-based pan-European organization that "has no drones, no missiles, but has the force of law."
Now that the convention has been adopted, 25 ratifications at the national level are required to activate the reparations commission. Its operating budget must be raised, to which the EU has already pledged €1 million. The process is expected to take between 12 and 18 months. The commission will then have access to the register of damages, created by the Council of Europe on May 17, 2023, and kept in The Hague.
