As it follows from the official sources, the Danube Commission supported at its 104th session Ukraine’s initiative to create a Register of Damage from Russian Aggression on the Lower Danube and the systematic collection of data on damage that impedes free and safe navigation. The adoption of the resolution “On the Violation of the Belgrade Convention Caused by Military Actions of the Russian Federation” was supported by the majority of participating countries: Austria, Croatia, Germany, Moldova, Romania, Slovakia, and Ukraine voted “in favor”.
The resolution reflected the situation, when the Russian attacks on Ukrainian Danube ports led to the destruction of port infrastructure, damage to vessels and cargo, and also created risks for international logistics and the safety of navigation on the Danube. The creation of the Register is an important step in recording these losses and forming an international legal basis for holding the aggressor state accountable. The resolution is consistent with the approaches of the Council of Europe to the Register of Damage, which allows recording the damage caused by the Russian aggression according to uniform international standards. The Danube Commission also condemned in the resolution the military actions of Russia as violating the basic principles of the Belgrade Convention.
From now on, the Secretariat of the Danube Commission will keep a Register of Damages until the end of the aggressive war of Russia against Ukraine; it will publish and regularly update summarized information on the official website of the Commission; it will transfer data to the Council of Europe and the European Union; it will inform the Danube Commission about the military actions of Russia that impede navigation.
Let us remind, that Russia, since the beginning of full-scale aggression, was first suspended from membership in the Danube Commission, and then excluded from it, as well as from membership in the Belgrade Convention.
During the last four years, our Association systematically informed the Danube Commission, as well as the UN bodies, Council of Europe, EU, OSCE, ILO, and IMO, about the brutal violations of the demands of international humanitarian, maritime, environmental, and human rights law committed by Russia in the Black Sea region, including the Lower Danube, and our special attention was paid to the usage by Russia of the occupied Crimea as a foothold for relevant illegal activities, including acts of Russian state terrorism.
ARC’s submissions become a ground for the official statement, made at the 104th session of the Danube Commission, about illegal activities of the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping and of the Russian Classification Society, supported by Russian and Chinese intelligence, against maritime and Danube security and safety, with a relevant example of the “Volgoneft” catastrophe near Kerch Strait, that made direct negative environmental impact on the environment and fishery of the Lawer Danube.
Our cooperation with the Danube Commission on pointed issues, including the data collection for the Register of Damage, will be continued, with a basis of our new expert results on issues of damage calculation, elaborated in 2025 in the Odesa Region.
At the same time, Russian propaganda, controlled by the aggressor’s punishers, in the framework of relevant hysteria, promised to “recognize as extremist organizations and persons” not only our Association and its experts but also our international respondents, including the UN Human Rights Council, special rapporteurs, and UN Secretary-General António Guterres personally.
