Ihor Petrenko, Ph.D. and expert at the analytical center United Ukraine, considers the decision announced by President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen to create a center in The Hague to deal with crimes of Russian aggression in Ukraine extremely relevant. The expert conveyed this in a remark for Comments.ua.
"From the beginning of the full-scale Russian aggression, Ukraine began to actively cooperate with foreign partners to correctly record all the crimes committed by the Russians in this war, including war crimes. The Prosecutor General's Office has done significant work. Commissions and groups were created to deal with all this. Russian crimes were and are being recorded in Ukraine. All evidence is properly processed so that no one has the opportunity to manipulate it," the expert said.
At the same time, he continued, one should understand that war crimes (rape, murder, looting, etc.) are investigated by law enforcement agencies of Ukraine and the International Criminal Court. That is, the work is carried out both from the perspective of Ukrainian national legislation and at the international level.
"But there is also another aspect - crimes of aggression by the Russian Federation. And here we are already talking about bringing officials to justice. Including those who use the so-called "functional immunity"; this is the president and ministers. And the crime of aggression can theoretically be considered by the ICC. But then, both Ukraine and Russia would have to ratify the Rome Statute, which has not been done so far. Accordingly, the ICC cannot investigate the crimes of the Russian Federation from the perspective of aggression," explains Ihor Petrenko.
Another body that could conduct such an investigation and then issue a verdict is the UN. There must be a decision of the UN Security Council regarding the creation of a specialized tribunal. "But we perfectly understand that because the Russian Federation has the right of veto in the UN, it is a dead end. In addition, China will remain the post-president of the UN Security Council, which has "a special opinion". Therefore, Ukraine and its partners chose the third way, which is the creation of a specialized tribunal by signing an international treaty. Perhaps a broad one, with the participation of both organizations and specific countries."
According to Ihor Petrenko, expert consultations have already been held, and dialogue at the level of bilateral intergovernmental negotiations with various countries is currently ongoing. Based on this, a specialized tribunal will be created to investigate the crimes of aggression specifically to bring Putin and his entourage personally to justice.
"War crimes became possible precisely because of the decision on aggression. It is vital to bring to justice those who planned the attack on Ukraine and gave it the green light. And the center dealing with the crimes of Russian aggression in Ukraine, which will be created in The Hague and which Ursula von der Leyen talks about is also one of the additional mechanisms. It will help to better record war crimes, as well as to form a coalition of countries to create a specialized tribunal to punish the highest military and political leadership of the Russian Federation. Several perpetrators of war crimes have already been brought to justice for responsibility. Someone has been convicted in Ukraine, and someone is still in absentia. But the scale of investigations and verdicts by the courts should be as broad as possible so that every Russian soldier understands that sooner or later they will have to answer for everything they did in Ukraine".
Source: "Сomments.ua"
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