Hapag Lloyd container ship on the Elbe River, Germany. (Keystone/imageBROKER/Ingeborg Knol)

Global freight shunning the climate sunlight. As the calls to accelerate climate action pile up, freight operators are increasingly under pressure to do their part and become more sustainable. Nearly 200 members of the International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations have been meeting this week in Geneva to discuss business and other priorities, including climate action. But the energy transition is set to be a difficult one as the sector grapples with unprecedented global challenges and its own current rigidities.

Iryna Venediktova, Ukrainian ambassador to Switzerland, in the offices of Le Temps, 21 March 2023. (David Wagnières/Le Temps)Iryna Venediktova, Ukrainian ambassador to Switzerland, in the offices of Le Temps, 21 March 2023. (David Wagnières/Le Temps)

‘Peace will only be possible after our victory’ Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, Iryna Venediktova tracked down war crimes and collected evidence of abuses by Moscow’s army. Venediktova, now ambassador to Switzerland, had been Ukraine’s first female prosecutor general before stepping down from the role in July. In an interview with Le Temps, she talks about the arrest warrant issued against Russian president Vladimir Putin by the International Criminal Court, the tragedy of flight MH-17 shot down by a Russian missile over the Donbas in 2014 and Swiss neutrality. But above all, the ambassador asks Switzerland to take “rapid” decisions on the re-exportation of weapons.

Russia-Ukraine war: what are the risks of escalation? One year since Russia invaded Ukraine, could the war extend beyond the country’s borders and should Vladimir Putin’s threats of using nuclear weapons be taken seriously? What does the future look like for Ukrainians who have fled the violence?

Geneva Solutions, in partnership with Le Temps and the Geneva Press Club, will debate these questions with Ukrainian ambassador to Switzerland Iryna Venediktova, the assistant high commissioner for protection with the UN Refugge Agency Gillian Triggs and other high-level experts and civil society actors at a panel on 4 April at Domaine de Penthes in Geneva.