On Friday, June 19, 2026, during a demonstration held in Kyiv against wartime sexual violence, *Le Figaro* published an in-depth interview with Nicolas Ligneul, a member of the Paris Bar and founder of FUVI.
In this exclusive interview, Maître Ligneul discusses his efforts to have the mass rapes perpetrated by Russian soldiers against Ukrainian civilians since the 2022 invasion recognized as war crimes, and to ensure that the perpetrators are tried before the International Criminal Court.
He begins by tracing the legal history of this classification: it was not until 1977 that rape was first recognized as a war crime, and it was not until the 2000s—thanks to the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia—that convictions began to be handed down on this basis.
Maître Ligneul then explains the nature of the violence documented since 2022—humiliations at checkpoints, rape used as a weapon of terror, and a deliberate strategy of Russification—as well as the variety of intentions underlying these acts. He has filed complaints with the ICC more than 3,000 times since the start of the conflict.
Finally, he details the concrete objectives of the legal battle he is waging on behalf of the victims: to obtain official recognition of their suffering, compensation, and, ultimately, the seizure of Russian criminal assets for the benefit of a dedicated compensation fund.
A powerful and necessary interview, available in its entirety on lefigaro.fr. “A Will to Destroy”: A Lawyer’s Fight to Bring Russian War Rapes in Ukraine Before the ICC
