Kuleba urged to create Special Tribunal for russia’s leadership

Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba called for a Special Tribunal establishment to bring russia's military and political leadership to justice for crimes committed in Ukraine

Rubryka informs, referring to the Foreign Ministry's press service.

It should be noted that Kuleba made such an appeal at the International Conference in The Hague.

"I will be clear: Ukraine accuses russia of committing the crime of aggression. With other states, organizations and institutions, we will use all available tools to achieve justice for the thousands of innocent victims of this crime.

And we will not rest until those responsible are brought to justice," the minister said.

The minister named five main parameters that Ukraine proposes to base the future Special Tribunal:

• The Special Tribunal will be based on the rules and approaches used by the International Criminal Court and set out in its Rome Statute.

It will investigate and prosecute crimes of aggression against Ukraine committed on its territory, as defined by Article 8 bis of the Rome Statute.

• The jurisdiction of the Special Tribunal will extend to all events since February 2014, the beginning of the armed aggression of the russian federation against Ukraine.
• The Special Tribunal will have jurisdiction over individuals who exercise effective control over or directly carry out political or military actions of a state.
• The official status of the defendant, such as the status of the head of state, or the official status of another state official, will not exempt such a person from individual criminal responsibility. Nor will the punishment be reduced.
• The special tribunal will consider only crimes of aggression against Ukraine. It will be created as an international special ad hoc criminal tribunal to consider russia's armed aggression against Ukraine.

Kuleba explained that while international criminal justice has sufficient tools to investigate war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, existing institutions face objective legal obstacles in investigating the crime of aggression against Ukraine.

That is why it is necessary to create a Special Tribunal to prosecute russia's leadership for this particular crime.

"If there are no appropriate tools allowing us to carry out justice, we will return to the very origins of international criminal justice to create them," the minister emphasized.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine reminded that the initiative to create a Special Tribunal has already been supported by:

• Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe,
• European Parliament,
• NATO Parliamentary Assembly,
• OSCE Parliamentary Assembly,
• The Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania.

We will remind that at the end of May, representatives of countries working on the investigation of russian war crimes in Ukraine held a coordination meeting in The Hague.

This meeting took place against the background of calls to bring those responsible for the atrocities committed to justice.

Read Rubryka's daily timeline of war: current news on Ukraine's defense against russia's aggression.