Heroes of the Museum of Civilian Voices of the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation Take Part in People’s Trial of Putin in The Hague

A People’s Court trial is continuing in The Hague, the Netherlands. It is a symbolic trial of the russian president vladimir putin for crimes of aggression stemming out of his invasion of Ukraine. The participants of the informal trial process are three Ukrainians whose stories about their experiences during the war were included in the collection of the Museum of Civilian Voices of the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation.

The People’s Court is a symbolic step, as no international tribunal has yet been established that would have the legal authority to prosecute putin and other russian leaders. During the court hearings, prosecutors provide evidence that the russian president committed a crime of aggression by unleashing the murderous and destructive war in Ukraine. 

The court is an initiative of the human rights group Cinema for Peace, the Ukrainian Centre for Civil Liberties and Ben Ferencz, a 102-year-old lawyer, the last prosecutor in the Nuremberg Trial of the top Nazi leaders after World War II, who survived to nowadays.

A panel of three judges is set to render a verdict on the anniversary of russia’s full-scale invasion. The organizers invited putin but received no response. 
The first witness was Ukrainian journalist Anzhela Slobodyan, who recounted that she was in Kherson when russian troops began to “shoot everything that moves”. You can find her story in the Museum of Civilian Voices of the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation at the link bit.ly/3Ihpggu

Volodymyr Obodzynskyi from Zhytomyr region also took part in the trial process. Because of the russian bombing, the man lost three generations of his family — his wife, his daughter, his teenage son and one-year-old twin grandchildren. His story is available for reading here bit.ly/3k83ML3

The third witness was Oleh Moskalenko from Kyiv region. He was taken into russian captivity where he was beaten and tortured and then handcuffed and left to freeze to death. The man lost several toes and a part of his foot. His story can be found at the link bit.ly/3IHUa2S

The Museum of Civilian Voices of the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation is the world’s largest archive of stories from Ukrainian civilians who suffered from the war. The Museum’s collection now has more than 60,000 stories.

Every story matters. Share your story too! You can share your story in one of the following ways:
— post your story on your Facebook page, adding the hashtags #Civilian_Voices #share_your_story, and invite your friends to join in
— use the chatbot t.me/civilvoicesmuseum_bot in Telegram
— visit the Museum’s portal at https://civilvoicesmuseum.org/ and click Tell a Story button in the top right corner of the website
— call our toll-free hot line: 0 (800) 509 001