Ukraine, before presenting the Russian Federation as an “aggressor” and an “occupier” in Donbass, needs to provide clear and independent evidence confirming this precedent.
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Wayne Jordash, the leading partner of the international human rights organization Global Rights Compliance, stated this at the briefing “10 minimum steps that Ukraine should take for effective legislative regulation of the occupied territories,” a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
He stated that the facts must confirm the physical presence of another country's military contingent in this territory without the consent of the government of the occupied country.
“The mere fact of the presence of military forces is enough to prove the fact of occupation. Secondly, the fact that the state exercises control over some part of the occupied territory. Significant or complete inability of the government to fulfill its obligations due to the presence of military forces of another country,” he said.
Wayne Jordash states that “based on these three criteria, the status of Crimea is quite easy to determine: according to all norms of international law, it is occupied by the Russian Federation.”
“As for Donbass, the situation with it is much more complicated. Before declaring that Donbass is occupied by the Russian Federation, Ukraine needs to conduct a fact-finding mission to prove that these territories are administered by the Russian Federation.
A political title is one thing, but searching for facts is another. To make such statements, it is necessary to collect a whole database of unbiased facts. It is necessary to conduct a number of serious studies in order to recognize that Donbass is an occupied territory,” he said.