Lawyers in wartime

Along with everyone else in Kyiv, Taras Tertychnyi woke up on February 24th to the sound of distant explosions resembling thunder. But the sound was unusual enough that he knew right away it was not. "I checked the news on my smartphone, which confirmed the beginning of the war." He and his family then got up and discussed their plans.

"The extent of the invasion, the damage and other parameters were absolutely not clear at that moment," he wrote in an email. "What was clear was the fact that we only had about half an hour to grab our things, get into the car and run from Kyiv if we decided to do so, as by then the whole city would be on the road." 

After looking around the house and checking on electricity and water, they realized that there was no fighting in their area and everything was still in its place. "The explosions in the sky were over. So we decided not to panic, stay ready, and look for what happened next." 

Tertychnyi, a partner at Marushko Law Office in Kyiv, has worked in international dispute resolution and international transactions for more than 15 years. He and his partner had briefly discussed their options and "agreed that we were able to survive a limited war – just doing what we were doing back in 2014-2015 [when Russian annexed Crimea]. In case of a full-scale war, we would act according to the circumstances. In the end, if Putin decides to drop a nuclear bomb on us, the business would not matter much." 

Pressure had begun to rise as the Russian army built up its forces close to Ukraine's borders in the weeks leading up to the start of the war. Since his firm specializes in international corporate, M&A and other transactional work, most of their clients had assessed their risks and suspended their projects weeks before the invasion. "Most of our files were stored in the Microsoft cloud with storage facilities outside Ukraine, so they were quite safe."

Due to COVID-19 lockdowns, the firm was already functional remotely, except for a minimal list of operations requiring in-person attention. The partners made it clear to employees that their personal and family safety was their top priority. "Therefore, we allowed them to make their own decisions and have all the reasonable time for relocation and accommodation as they will need," says Tertychnyi. "It was also understood that they might not be available for a full-time workday. In the meantime, we will keep paying their salaries as long as we would be able to afford it under the circumstances."

Judges and lawyers on the front lines

Canadian lawyers with ties to Ukraine are watching in horror as the war unfolds. Montréal lawyer Eugene Czolij has been in contact with his network of lawyers in Ukraine since February 24th, who describe the situation as "hell" because civilians are subjected to daily bombardments. He says the Russian army "is not as successful as Putin had initially envisaged, so he's resorting to the brutal approach of an authoritarian dictator with imperialistic ambitions and no scruples for human life by punishing the civil population and destroying the country." He adds that "civilians, including children, are victims of daily war crimes." 

One of Czolij's colleagues in Ukraine told him that when he first heard bombs falling, "it was a frightening experience that you just have to learn to live with and continue to defend your country. Amazingly, Ukrainians are doing just that, in large numbers, and being successful at it."

Czolij, a partner who practises insolvency law at Lavery, is the Honorary Consul of Ukraine in Montréal and has strong connections to the country. After serving as president of the Ukrainian World Congress for ten years, Czolij headed the monitoring mission during the presidential and parliamentary elections in 2019. He then helped found an organization in Ukraine called NGO "Ukraine-2050," which he chairs and "was established to help implement within one generation strategies for the sustainable development of Ukraine as a fully independent, territorially integral, democratic, reformed, and economically competitive European state."

Czolij adds that for Europe, the best way to guarantee peace and stability is "for Ukraine to successfully regain and then protect its territorial integrity. That is why the West should help Ukraine accomplish this." 

Some lawyers and judges have joined the Ukrainian militia to defend the country and are fighting on the front lines, while others are still working on legal files, at least to some extent. Lawyers in Ukraine have told Jason Woycheshyn, president of the Ukrainian Canadian Bar Association, that "there's no courier service, and the National Bank of Ukraine has put an embargo on sending funds out of the country. But they're still trying to do things where they have to." 

Woycheshyn, a partner at Stewart McKelvey in Halifax, whose practice focuses on litigation, arbitration and dispute resolution, has spoken with Ukrainian lawyers who have shifted to being warriors, compelled to do "what we need to do to stay alive and preserve our country." 

Younger Ukrainian lawyers are active on LinkedIn and very vocal on their views of the war, says Woycheshyn. "I think the older ones, who have seen regime changes in the past, are a bit more self-preservational in the sense of trying to not be as vocal because they don't know how things are going to turn out. And they're worried about their safety and their family's safety."

Fight for independence

Due to its strategic location and fertile soil that has made it the breadbasket of Eastern Europe, Ukraine has been fought over for hundreds, if not thousands, of years, says Woycheshyn. There has always been a "fight to maintain the independence and the language and the culture."  

In 1991, Ukrainians overwhelmingly voted for independence as the USSR was collapsing, which Woycheshyn calls "an incomplete independence." He describes the 2014 Maidan Revolution as the next step. Since the 1991 vote, there are "fully grown adults now who only knew an independent Ukraine and that's what they're trying to preserve. And not just preserve but truly make it independent, get it over the last hurdle." At this point, "they're truly fighting for the last bit of freedom." 

Ukrainians have seen what Vladimir Putin has done over the years, says Woycheshyn, "not just with his overt attacks but also with his subterfuge and covert attacks and ability to penetrate the country and penetrate media and control narratives. And the naïveté of thinking that someone like that will stop at a country like this is very frustrating for us. No one wants to start a nuclear war, but if you hold off that engagement until later then you create a further escalation.

"Putin is now showing his true colours to the rest of the world, but we've seen them for a while. You're going to have to face the bully one time or another and it doesn't get better waiting. It's been a struggle for freedom, and I think they recognize that independence never comes for free."