Ukraine should establish a training center for its own experts at the International Criminal Court (ICC), according to Oleksiy Shevchuk, a partner at Barristers LLC.
“Ukraine must provide systematic expertise and professionals capable of working effectively within the ICC’s structure. Ukraine should establish a training center for experts to work in international judicial bodies, primarily the ICC, as international criminal law will be one of the defining areas of 21st-century politics,” he told Interfax-Ukraine.
As Shevchuk noted, the ICC currently needs a wide range of experts who can support its operations.
“There are positions for OSINT coordinators, language analysts, financial experts, evidence management specialists, and even cyber intelligence specialists. The Court is a massive organization. And for it to function, dozens of highly qualified specialists in various fields are needed. Unfortunately, there are very few such people in Ukraine. If we can find 10 people ready to start working in The Hague tomorrow—that would be an optimistic forecast,” he said.
At the same time, Shevchuk noted that Ukraine has a strong tradition of ECHR practice, but the ICC is a different world; it has a different procedural logic, a different role for evidence, and a different mechanism for gathering information.
“The Court requires practical skills in international criminal proceedings, an understanding of military operations, and language proficiency at the level of technical translation of international terminology. It is a highly specialized environment,” he added.
Commenting on steps toward establishing a training center for ICC specialists, Shevchuk said that such a center should have several areas of focus: a program for training practicing lawyers (investigators, prosecutors, attorneys), a program for training technical and analytical staff (OSINT specialists, evidence managers, translators, data auditors, etc.), and a program for language and ethics training adapted to The Hague standards.
“We have a strong academic base in Ukraine, but researchers also need a team capable of integrating into the court’s practical work tomorrow. Canada established the Canadian Centre for International Justice, which trains lawyers and analysts specifically for international tribunals. Ukraine needs something similar—a partnership between universities, government agencies, and the ICC itself. This could be a joint initiative of the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, academic institutions, and civil society organizations,” said Shevchuk.
“In the coming decades, the focus will definitely shift toward The Hague—and Ukraine needs real experts, not just symbolic ones. This is not a matter of prestige, but of competence: either we train our own specialists, or others will do it for us,” the lawyer concluded.
Barristers, ICC, LAWYER, specialist, training center, ШЕВЧУК
As part of his business goals for 2026, Vasyl Khmelnytsky, founder of the UFuture holding company, plans to establish a training center in the Bila Tserkva Industrial Park, the entrepreneur wrote.
“At the beginning of the year, I always set my goals. I know that I will not fulfill the plan 100% because I cannot predict exactly what challenges 2026 will bring. But goals are necessary — they keep you focused,” Khmelnytsky wrote in a Facebook post.
Among the five business goals he has set are the launch of a school and an art alley at UNIT.City.
In addition, Khmelnytskyi intends to retain and develop his team and pay off at least $10 million in loans.
“Next, I will break these goals down into specific tasks and start taking action,” he said.
UFuture is Khmelnytskyi’s holding company, which brings together his commercial and social projects. It has a diversified portfolio of assets in real estate, infrastructure, industry, renewable energy, pharmaceuticals, and IT. UFuture’s assets are estimated at $500 million, and the total capitalization of the businesses in which the holding company has invested is up to $1 billion.
IP “Bila Tserkva” and “Bila Tserkva 2” were included in the Register of Industrial Parks in 2018.
There are 19 residents operating in the developed territory of the park, including Unilever, InTiCa Systems, Peikko, and Pripravka, which moved from Kharkiv in 2022, as well as the Nova Poshta logistics depot, the Volytsia-Agro grain storage and processing complex, the Plank Electrotechnic electrical fittings factory, and Virastar, a manufacturer of high-altitude equipment for construction work.
As reported, in the summer of 2025, IP “Bila Tserkva” signed an agreement with Gualapack Ukraine, a subsidiary of the Italian company Guala Pack, which manufactures packaging for the food industry, to build a complex of industrial buildings with a total area of about 10,000 square meters for the purpose of relocating the plant, which operated in Sumy and was partially restarted on leased premises in the Ternopil region. The planned investment is EUR12 million.
The UNIT.City innovation park, created in Kyiv on the site of a former motorcycle factory, brings together startups, IT companies, R&D centers, and educational spaces to develop an innovative ecosystem.
