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Overcoming Russia’s War against Ukraine. Results of the CivilM+ Forum 2022 in Berlin “Strengthening Links between Political Decision Makers and Civil Society Organizations in Europe”
Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the work and focus of the CivilM+ platform has expanded beyond Donbas to cover the entire territory of Ukraine that has been subjected to shelling and destruction. The activities of both Ukrainian and international organizations that are members of the platform were also refocused to the needs of wartime, which naturally influenced the choice of forum topic in the first year of the full-scale war.
The central issues of the forum were the opportunities and challenges of interaction between political stakeholders and civil society organizations in Europe in general and in Ukraine in particular. Through the lens of such interaction the forum’s participants were able to discuss:
- violations of international humanitarian law and human rights, war crimes and crimes against humanity, and their documentation
- the role of the EU in establishing peace in Ukraine
- the problems of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and residents of frontline and occupied zones
- Russia’s destructive impact
- strengthening of the international presence in Ukraine
- the situation of prisoners of war and civilian hostages
- possibilities for the post-war reconstruction of the country.