Ministry of Foreign Affairs expecting Russia to face tribunal

Evropeyskaya Pravda – TUESDAY, 1 MARCH 2022, 10:05

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine hopes that in the future the leadership of the Russian Federation will face an international process like the Nuremberg trial for crimes during the war in Ukraine.

According to "Evropeyska Pravda’’, the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs made a statement after the decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to launch a formal investigation into the situation in Ukraine.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs points out that the events of recent days give reason to believe that war crimes falling under ICC jurisdiction continue to be committed on the territory of Ukraine.

"Despite the fact that Ukraine is not a party to the Rome Statute, our state recognised its ad hoc jurisdiction on the basis of the earlier filed applications. Thus, Ukraine submitted two applications to the International Criminal Court. The first one related to the events that took place in Ukraine between 21 November 2013 and 22 February 2014, and the second application referred to the continuation of the crimes in the period of 20 February 2014. The analysis of these two applications gave every reason to the Prosecutor’s Office to claim the commitment of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The top military and political leadership of Russia will definitely appear before the International Criminal Court and will be held responsible for every crime committed. This will be the Nuremberg process of the 21st century," the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said.

The ICC Prosecutor in The Hague Karim Khan announced that he will launch an investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine. Lithuania launched an appeal to the ICC to investigate war crimes committed by Russia and Belarus in Ukraine.

On the first day of the invasion of Ukraine, Karim Khan announced that The Hague was planning to study Russia's war crimes during the invasion of Ukraine.