Ukraine

A visa scheme allowing Ukrainian refugees to bring their family members to the UK has been closed without warning. The UK government yesterday announced the immediate closure of the Ukraine family scheme (UFS), while new visas under the Homes for Ukraine (HFU) scheme will now be issued for 18 months

Russia's Wagner Group – the private military company whose leader Yevgeny Prigozhin led an abortive rebellion against Vladimir Putin before being killed in a plane crash last month – is to be proscribed in the UK as a terrorist organisation. Home Secretary Suella Braverman has today laid

An appeal hearing at a Moscow court yesterday which upheld the 13-year sentence imposed on Maksym Butkevych, a Ukrainian human rights defender, is a grave miscarriage of justice, Amnesty International said. The decision to imprison him for 13 years was taken by the so-called supreme court in Russian

The International Bar Association (IBA) and the Ukrainian Bar Association (UBA) have joined forces to monitor war crime trials in courts in Kyiv and Kharkiv Oblasts from July until the end of September 2023. The monitoring will be delivered as part of the United States Agency for International Devel

Duncan Hamilton KC and his brother David, a former chairman of the Scottish Police Federation, are driving a specially adapted vehicle to Ukraine where it will be used to support children traumatised by the ongoing war. Thousands of children are 'internally displaced' in Ukraine and many are traumat

The Ukrainian Bar Association (UBA) has launched an online charity auction to raise funds for Ukrainian lawyers in a difficult situation as a result of the war.

The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia's commissioner for children’s rights, over the deportation of Ukrainian children. ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan KC said in a statement that the Pre-Trial Chamber "has confirmed that there

Ukraine has won a significant hurdle in a seven-year-long English court dispute over a $3 billion Russian loan, with the case now set to proceed to a full trial before the High Court. In an 85-page judgment handed down yesterday morning, the UK Supreme Court unanimously held that the Law Debenture T

Rob Marrs, head of education at the Law Society of Scotland, details the support of the Scottish legal community for Ukrainian lawyers. I’ll confess that my knowledge of Ukraine prior to last year’s invasion by Russia was limited. I knew the names of some of the cities. I had a vague ide

Friday, 24 February 2023 marked one year since Russia launched its illegal invasion of Ukraine. Law Society of Scotland president Murray Etherington reflects on what has been lost and achieved in the past year, and on the importance of remaining steadfast in providing support through the struggles a

Today, 24 February 2023, marks exactly one year since Russia invaded Ukraine. In October 2022, at the opening ceremony of the IBA Annual Conference in Miami, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed delegates by video in which he referred to members of the audience as "defenders of the

The Faculty of Advocates hosted a reception to celebrate the work of Scottish lawyers who are supporting their Ukrainian colleagues seeking refuge from the war in their homeland.  Dean of Faculty, Roddy Dunlop KC, welcomed Ukrainian lawyers and many members of the Scottish legal community who h

Working in partnership with Ukraine’s Constitutional Court, the University of Birmingham and Ivan Franko National University, Lviv (IFNUL) have defined the first 1,000 terms in a unique handbook for scientists, human rights defenders, and legal experts further developing the country as a const

An event marking the opening of the new legal year in Ukraine has been cancelled as a result of missile strikes across the country. The Ukrainian Bar Association (UBA) had invited legal professionals from across Europe to virtually attend tonight's event, which was set to be addressed by Vsevolod Kn

Amnesty International has condemned moves by Russian-backed armed groups to try Ukrainian prisoners of war in a so-called "international tribunal" in Mariupol as illegal and abusive. Reports and pictures shared on social media appear to show cages being built inside the Mariupol Philharmonic Hall to