On 22 April, the second meeting of the Interagency Working Group on coordinating measures to preserve documentary evidence of the armed aggression by the Russian Federation against Ukraine took place at the Mission of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.

The meeting was attended by representatives of central executive bodies and state archival institutions, including the Head of the State Archival Service of Ukraine, Anatolii Khromov, and First Deputy Head Tetiana Shevchenko; Acting Minister of Justice Liudmyla Suhak; as well as representatives of other agencies, academia, the expert community, and organisations documenting the events of the war.

During her speech, Permanent Representative Olha Kuryshko emphasised that the systematic documentation of the aggressor state’s crimes is key to restoring justice and preserving national memory.

“We face a great task — to look for ways to preserve and pass on evidence of the crimes committed by Russians in the temporarily occupied territories. The formation of a system for preserving information about the events of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine is the basis for preserving the memory of the events, countering disinformation, and resisting attempts to rewrite history”, Olha Kuryshko noted.

In turn, the Head of the State Archival Service of Ukraine, Anatolii Khromov, recalled the concept of transitional justice and noted that it is a process that can last for years even after the end of hostilities. According to him, without a proper state system for document preservation, Ukraine risks losing an important evidence base regarding Russia’s crimes. As an example, he cited the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people in 1944, a significant part of the documentary evidence of which is kept in Moscow.

Separately, Anatolii Khromov spoke about the hub “Archive of the War for Independence” and the Coordinating Centre for Preserving Documentary Evidence of Russia’s Armed Aggression Against Ukraine as tools for systematising, preserving, and coordinating work with evidentiary materials: https://awfi.arch.gov.ua/.

The meeting participants discussed the significance of documentary evidence as a component of the National Archival Fund, the results of the analysis regarding the state of documenting the events of the War for Independence of Ukraine, and problematic issues in implementing state policy in this sphere. They also outlined further proposals for coordinating the work on preserving evidence of Russian aggression.