29 states support creation of special tribunal for russia – Ukraine’s foreign minister

Already 29 countries have joined the coalition, which supports the creation of a special tribunal for the russian federation for the crime of aggression.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, announced this after a meeting with colleagues from the Netherlands and Estonia in Lviv.

On March 3, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, held a tripartite meeting with the heads of ministries of foreign affairs of the Netherlands and Estonia in Lviv. He said that this meeting was primarily devoted to the issue of creating a Special Tribunal to punish the russian federation. The process itself started last year.

"If at the beginning the conversation about the tribunal did not arouse much enthusiasm and then it was abstract, now we have already built a coalition of countries that are substantively working on the parameters of the future tribunal. The so-called main group – the coalition for creating a special tribunal – today already includes 29 countries [ …], including one country from Latin America," Kuleba said at the briefing.

On January 26, the first constitutive meeting to create this coalition was held in Prague. Then 21 states took part in it. The coalition's next meeting will be held on March 21-22 in Strasbourg.

"I am convinced that by then, the number of coalition participants will increase," Kuleba added.

For reference:

In September 2022, the Office of the President reported that Ukraine offered the G7 countries and other partner states to support the initiative to create a special international tribunal to punish russia for the crime of aggression against Ukraine.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine explained that international criminal justice had enough tools to investigate war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of genocide. But the existing institutions faced "objective legal obstacles" in investigating the crime of aggression against Ukraine. That is why it was necessary to create a Special Tribunal which would be able to prosecute the leadership of russia for this particular crime.

On January 16, the European Parliament received a proposal to introduce a special tribunal for russia. Since then, several countries and high-ranking EU officials have expressed their support. And the Netherlands is ready to accept the tribunal over russia.