What is Voice of Ukrainians?

The Voice of Ukrainians project was originally conceived as a response to open calls for discrimination and public humiliation of Ukrainians, voiced from the podiums of the European Parliament, as well as in publications and statements across various European media outlets.

It began as an initiative to monitor such incidents, compile a database, and establish a legal foundation — both for the potential future prosecution of those responsible and to help Ukrainians themselves understand what was happening and refer to documented cases when defending their rights. The original version existed only in English and attracted limited attention — to the point that even many Ukrainians could not fully grasp the nature and scale of the problem.

The launch of the Ukrainian and Russian-language versions required more than a simple translation of the English-language content, since much of what is stated in English is already self-evident to Ukrainians and does not need to be repeated. A fundamentally different approach was needed — not a formal adaptation for the sake of visibility, but a substantively new and practically useful format capable of genuinely responding to the legal needs of Ukrainians as citizens who found themselves in conditions of official derogation and a de facto paralysis of the legal system, where most lawyers are either intimidated or entirely dependent on the state. In such circumstances, almost no one is willing to take on even basic cases involving the defense of individual rights — let alone collective ones, whose very existence remains outside both the legal and public discourse.

That is why the idea emerged to create at least a minimal legal self-defense resource — accessible to every Ukrainian, regardless of their location. And as practice has shown, over the past months, thousands of Ukrainians have used these materials to support their asylum or protection claims in Western countries — not as fabricated stories, but as documented reflections of real and ongoing threats.

After more than a year of independent and in-depth analysis of legislation, court decisions, and international legal standards, we came to a shocking conclusion: the discrimination and vilification of Ukrainians in Western media pale in comparison to the systemic dismantling of the ethnic identity and legal subjectivity of the Ukrainian community being carried out from within the country itself

In reality, it is a deep transformation aimed at depriving the Ukrainian ethnic community of the status of a people as a subject of international law. This is being carried out not through direct occupation, but through the legislative surrender of sovereignty — by adopting the Law on Indigenous Peoples and regulatory acts on national minorities, which completely replace constitutional concepts. In the new legal reality, Ukrainians are no longer recognized as owners of land, resources, and state power.

Under the cover of war and security rhetoric, a systematic nullification of the rights of the Ukrainian ethnic community is being formalized — as the historical successor of sovereignty and territory. Everything presented as reform is, in fact, a legally disguised dismantling of the people and the expropriation of their heritage.

As a result of these legislative transformations, all legal foundations confirming the status of the Ukrainian ethnic community as the rightful owner of sovereignty, land, and state authority were completely eliminated. This is not merely a formal exclusion, but a full legal expulsion that has deprived the people of their legal continuity and fundamental collective rights.

The restoration of these rights is possible through an act of self-determination, enshrined in Article 1 (paragraph 1) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Article 1 (paragraph 2) of the UN Charter. Since these international norms do not require strict procedural forms, any peaceful and lawful expression of a people’s collective will is considered legitimate.

Today, the pproject serves a threefold function: it remains a tool for monitoring discrimination against Ukrainians in the context of individual rights, a publicly documented act of self-identification by the Ukrainian ethnic community, and an archive of evidence detailing systemic violations of collective rights — including institutional segregation, cultural erasure, and the unlawful dispossession of land and resources.

Despite lacking formal international recognition, the very act of openly documenting these violations sets a precedent: the recorded will of the people, accessible to human rights defenders, legal professionals, and archival systems, becomes a legal fact that can no longer be ignored.

In the event of attempts to discredit the project by accusing it of nationalism, separatism, or sympathy for the aggressor, it is essential to clearly distinguish between the following concepts:

Nazism is an ideology of racial or ethnic superiority that leads to repression and the destruction of “others.”

Nationalism is an ideology based on the belief that one’s ethnic group has a special right to political, cultural, or territorial privileges by virtue of its origin.

But the demand for equal rights for one’s own ethnic community is neither one nor the other. It is a struggle for the restoration of justice and the elimination of discrimination. When indigenous peoples and national minorities are granted collective rights, while the titular nation is not, this constitutes not only a direct violation of Article 1 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1965), but also violates the right to self-determination enshrined in Article 1 (para. 2) of the UN Charter and Article 1 of the ICCPR; the right to participation in governance (Article 5(d)(iii) of the same Convention); the provisions of the Genocide Convention (Article 2) concerning the creation of conditions leading to the partial destruction of an ethnic group; and also falls under the classification of crimes against humanity and apartheid under the Rome Statute: Article 7(1)(h) (apartheid), Article 7(1)(c) and (d) (enslavement and deportations), Article 8(2)(a)(vii) (unlawful deprivation of rights during conflict).

Thus, the legal exclusion of the titular nation is not just discrimination — it is a potential composition of international crimes: apartheid, colonialism, enslavement, and elements of genocide.

It is important to understand: the demand for collective rights and the recognition of a people’s subjectivity within the existing jurisdiction is not separatism, but the restoration of what was fraudulently and imperceptibly taken away under the guise of reforms. Separatism is the pursuit of border changes, whereas in this case, it is about reclaiming the rightful subjectivity of an ethnic community within the current state — in full accordance with the UN Charter and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

This is not a threat to the state, but a reminder of a right the state is obligated to respect. However, if instead of upholding these principles, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU), and the Prosecutor General’s Office engage in extraterritorial persecution of opposition bloggers in Europe — interfering in the internal affairs of other countries under the pretext of national security — this is no longer legal protection but a transnational suppression of free speech. Especially when these actions target individuals who — due to the lack of recognized collective legal subjectivity of their people — are deprived of the ability to defend themselves as part of a sovereign ethnic group.

By complying with extradition requests from such a state, partner countries effectively become accomplices not only in political persecution but also in a legally codified system of colonial control and modern human trafficking disguised as justice — with the silent consent of those who call themselves the guarantors of democracy.

We categorically and unequivocally condemn Putin’s aggression against Ukraine as an act of state terror, mass murder, occupation, and colonial subjugation — a crime for which there can be neither justification nor statute of limitations. The regime that carried it out has itself destroyed the collective rights of the peoples of Russia, reducing them to subjects without will or legal personhood.

We do not express any sympathy for the aggressor, nor do we hold a pro-Russian position. We simply do not repeat what is already obvious — because through extensive legal work, it became clear that the entire media narrative of war is being used to divert attention from the core issue. And the core issue is the deliberate dismantling of collective rights of peoples across the Western world. 

Cheered on by international forums and summits, cloaked in the flags of democracy, and bankrolled by taxpayers’ money, the very foundation of popular sovereignty is being dismantled: collective subjectivity is eliminated, and peoples are legally transformed into citizens — an administrative mass without land, without representation, and without the right to rebel, under the total control of a monopolized state apparatus.

That is why Voice of Ukrainians is not ideological propaganda and not a political protest, but a legal act of exposing violations of both human and people’s rights — directed against any form of colonialism, even when it comes with grants, partner logos, and ambassadorial smiles. All evidence is available on this website.