Information

At the beginning of the Russian invasion in February 2022, very abbreviated and sometimes incorrect accounts of the war were published on social media and in the regular media. It made sense to initiate a project together with law students to explain and clarify selected aspects of the war from a legal perspective. The pandemic has already shown how false claims and conspiracy narratives can influence and misdirect current discussions. 

As part of their studies, law students take so-called seminars in which they develop individual topics in writing. As a rule, the work is not made available to the general public, so the content is not considered any further. In the seminar "The Russian aggression against Ukraine" of the Faculty of Law of the University of Hamburg, hosted by Dr. Anne Dienelt, it was clear from the outset that the students' research results would be made available to the general public, supported by graphic representations. 

The result is a digital exhibition that includes the initial reason for each topic in the form of media coverage, videos and social media posts. The artist Marlin Beringer has also created supporting illustrations. This multimedia digital exhibition is intended to guide interested parties through various scenarios of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and explain legal issues.

The students have also dealt with very sensitive content such as sexualized violence, terrorism and massacres. These chapters are marked with trigger warnings due to the graphic illustrations.

Acknowledgements

First and foremost, many thanks to the students who took part in this extraordinary and adventurous seminar, and to Marlin Beringer as the contributing artist. I would also like to thank Lukas Musumeci and Laura-Theresa Godau from the Writing Center at the University of Hamburg, Julia Panzer, an expert in science communication, and Louisa Hadadi for their support of the project!

This project would not have been possible without the generous support of the Claussen-Simon-Foundation and the Claussen-Simon-Fund for Science & Higher Education. We would also like to thank the staff of the University of Hamburg's Communication and Marketing Department for partially financing and implementing the digital exhibition, without whom it would not have been possible to overcome many of the technical challenges. The Faculty of Law at the University of Hamburg and the Institute of International Affairs also contributed financially.