Kuleba addresses discussions among democratic countries on tribunal for putin

The discussion among democratic states regarding the tribunal to punish russia's leadership for war crimes in Ukraine is not easy due to the symbolic weight of such processes

It was stated by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, in an interview with Ukrinform.

"I won't hide it; they are scared here for various reasons, including political. Since 1945, there have been only two such cases — Nuremberg and the trial of Milosevic, when the European leader was tried for crimes during the war.

And the practice of judging the leader of another state is, let's say, very shaky," noted Dmytro Kuleba.

The second reason is that some see it as an inappropriate alternative to the International Criminal Court.

"In its statute, it is written that one of the crimes for which it can try is aggression. But in practice, purely for legal reasons, it cannot apply this article specifically to the case of Ukraine and russia.

Our partners say: "There is no need to create a Tribunal because we have the International Criminal Court; we cannot create an alternative to it."

And we say: "Wait, what is more important – the ICC's interests, which does not want any temporary alternatives for itself, or justice, for the sake of which the ICC exists?".

Here they have a stupor because they are both for justice and the ICC. In short, there is a problem of "institutional selfishness" both in the issue of the International Criminal Court and in the case of the creation of a special tribunal," the foreign minister explained.

He added that Ukraine continues to convince its partners and these efforts have a chance of success.

Earlier, Dmytro Kuleba spoke about the five main parameters that Ukraine proposes to form the basis of the future Special Tribunal.