Mykola OSTAPIAK, Ukraine
PROJECT: Documenting Testimonies on War Crimes of Internally Displaced Persons in Ivano-Frankivsk Region

Mykola has been working at the Law Clinic of the Educational Scientific Law Institute of Precarpathian National University named after Vasyl Stefanyk for 4 years, providing and training law students to provide free legal assistance to citizens.  He has a Master’s degree in Law from the Precarpathian National University and is currently studying for a PhD.

Since the February 24, 2022, Russian invasion of Ukraine, he has been actively volunteering, providing free legal assistance to displaced persons and collecting evidence of war crimes together with a team of volunteers of the Non-Governmental Organization “Postupovyy gurt frankivtsiv”.

Working as a lawyer and actively involved in volunteering, Mykola uses his skills to train a team of volunteers to obtain important testimony about war crimes from internally displaced persons, provide legal assistance to internally displaced persons, and promote counter disinformation about war crimes.

“Every person is important, every testimony of a war crime must be recorded and documented. Even the smallest testimony is as important as a drop to a drop in the sea that forms the ocean of all truth and justice. People should know their rights and opportunities in wartime and through obtaining the status of an internally displaced person in order to effectively protect their interests, their rights, and their future.  Thanks to the fellowship I am able to contribute to this important process.”  – Mykola OSTAPIAK

Documenting Testimonies on War Crimes of Internally Displaced Persons in Ivano-Frankivsk Region

Fellowship Summary: The Fellow will use his legal background and cooperation with local officials to interview IDPs and document their war experiences and provide legal aid. He will be supported by other volunteers, who he will train and advise.

From the first days of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Ivano-Frankivsk, the hometown of the 27-years-old lawyer and PhD law student Mykola Ostapiak, became a transit hub for thousands of Ukrainians who were fleeing the war. Exhausted, disoriented and terrified, these people needed every help available, from clothing and shelter to assistance with restoring lost documents. Many of them witnessed shocking war crimes committed by Russian soldiers, and their testimonies were important to restore justice and fight Russian propaganda.

By that time, Mykola had already been working for four years at the Law Clinic of the Educational Scientific Law Institute of Precarpathian National University where he provided free legal assistance to citizens, so he immediately jumped into action

“I wanted to be useful whenever it was possible. I wanted to apply my legal knowledge and expertise to help people get compensations for the damages caused by the war, as well as to help our state authorities investigate war crimes or collect evidence”.

And the European Union’s EaP Civil Society Fellowship programme gave him the opportunity to carry out these activities on a new level. Mykola realized that every testimony was incredibly important, both for the Ukrainian investigators, prosecutors and security service, as well as for historians. He needed to act quickly as majority of internally displaced people (IDPs) stayed in Ivano-Frankivsk only for a short period of time, before going further, and memories become less detailed over time. To meet the time challenge, Mykola mobilized and trained a group of legal professionals – his co-workers from the university and the legal clinic, law students and paralegals from Postupovyy Gurt Frankivtsiv CSO – who worked with him on collecting the testimonies and providing legal assistance to IDPs.

During his 8-months Fellowship project Mykola’s team collected 221 testimonies of IDPs, including evidence of 195 attacks and damage of civil infrastructure, 47 war crimes of killing or wounding civilians, 9 instances of starvation of the civilian population, 12 cases of kidnapping, 4 instances of torture, and 88 crimes involving the seizure of property.

“In the beginning it was very hard for me and my team. Psychologically I was not ready for this, even after the training”, confesses Mykola, whose previous experience was mostly related with everyday life legal matters. “I thought I would not be able to continue because one cannot listen to those stories and remain indifferent.”

But they did continue. Their professionalism combined with compassion drove dozens of IDPs based in Ivano-Frankivsk to the legal clinic to seek help and testify the injustice and war crimes they had witnessed. Together with his team, Mykola travelled to remote cities and villages in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, to speak and help those who could not make it to town.

Mykola’s passion for his profession is rooted in his natural desire to help others. He says that people’s emotions and gratitude for help and advice is a constant reminder he is doing the right thing. Within his Fellowship project, his team also provided legal assistance to 85 IDPs, consulting them on social benefits and financial assistance, border crossing, recovery of documents, etc., and distributed 1,300 copies of the informational booklet explaining their rights as IDPs. “We had a case when a local entrepreneur was reluctant to hire an IDP. After one consultation on the state support to those employing IDPs, he not only hired the person, but was open to employ more people in the same situation”, remembers Mykola.

Despite the fact that his Fellowship project formally ended in April 2023, Mykola and his team continue their work on a volunteering basis. They joined the Ukraine 5 AM Coalition of Ukrainian and international human rights organisations aimed at protecting victims of armed Russian aggression in Ukraine and later at bringing to justice Russia’s top leadership and the perpetrators of war crimes. As of early August 2023, Mykola’s group has collected over 700 testimonies about war crimes. Most of those testimonies have been converted into formal war crimes protocols and entered into the Investigation Documentation System (I-DOC), a specially designed tool to help investigators analyse and verify testimonies and evidence to gather all the required information concerning committed war crimes and help Ukraine’s law enforcement launch trials. But some, like the story of an elderly couple from Mariupol, Oleksandr and Vira, were turned into media stories, to help counteract Russian disinformation and propaganda.

According to Mykola, the OSCE has already used some testimonies in its report, and Mykola proudly mentions the Russian government entered the 5 AM Coalition – and the Postupovyy Gurt Frankivtsiv as the coalition member – into its notorious list of ‘undesirable organisations’.

“Every story is a drop into the ocean of justice. And it will be these very stories and testimonies that will help to restore justice after the war”, concludes Mykola. “I dream of victory, of damages to be repaid to every person and – this may sound naïve – that every guilty person, not only Putin, but every soldier who committed a war crime, will be prosecuted and held accountable”.

Fellowship Programs 2022
Country Ukraine
Areas of Interest Advocacy
Service provision
Topics Human rights
Support to IDPs and vulnerable groups
Project duration August 2022 - April 2023

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