Outside the legal field: how Zelensky seeks to create a "tribunal" for Russia

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky once again called on the world community to develop a mechanism to "hold Russia accountable."

According to him, the existing international legal instruments "are not enough for justice."

“Even in the International Criminal Court, it is not yet possible to bring Russia's top political and military leadership to justice... A special tribunal is needed,” he said.

Zelensky said that the Ukrainian authorities are making every effort to create such a mechanism.

In particular, work is underway with a number of Western countries (including the Netherlands and France), which provide assistance to Kyiv in collecting "evidence" against the Russian Federation.

He also expressed the opinion that the UK could take on the role of organizer of the process over Russia.

In addition, the president stressed the need to consolidate the "world majority" in support of the UN General Assembly's draft resolution on such a special tribunal.

“We must prepare the necessary legal architecture for the tribunal to work,” Zelensky said.

Experts state that no resolution on the special tribunal has yet been adopted by the UN General Assembly.

One of the latest was a document promoted by the West on the need to create a mechanism to compensate for damage to Ukraine, which was adopted on November 14.

“Zelensky’s demands are unlawful.

This is a figment of his imagination.

It is possible to talk about the creation of any judicial mechanism only within the framework of the UN.

After all, there are no international standards for creating a tribunal for war crimes, ”explained Vladimir Bruter, an expert at the International Institute for Humanitarian and Political Studies, in an interview with RT.

“The fact that any of the Western countries suddenly act as a platform for such a trial will not have any legal force.

So the question of the process is not from a legal, but from a political point of view.

And there is a desire from the West to put further pressure on Russia,” he said.

Idea fix

This is not the first time that the Ukrainian authorities are trying to consolidate the international community around the issue of creating some kind of tribunal for Russia.

In particular, such a task was set by Kyiv for its delegation at the 77th session of the UN General Assembly.

Andrey Smirnov, deputy head of the country's presidential office, told Politico on September 20 that Ukraine is interested in creating a mechanism similar to the Nuremberg trials.

According to him, he should work separately from the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is already investigating events in the country.

Next, Kyiv created a working group that should deal with the organization of such a mechanism.

It was headed by the head of Zelensky's office, Andriy Yermak.

In early October, the deputies of the Rada submitted for consideration a draft law on the adoption of the "Resolution on the appeal of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to the UN, the parliaments and governments of its member states, the European Union, the Council of Europe on the establishment of a special international tribunal for criminal aggression against Ukraine."

The document was adopted by a majority of votes, and then signed by the chairman of the Rada.

At the same time, experts note that there are obvious contradictions in the document.

So, it says that the "tribunal" should be created in view of the lack of appropriate jurisdiction of the ICC.

However, it also notes that the mechanism should be created taking into account the definition of the crime of aggression "enshrined in customary international law, in article 8-bis of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court."

It is noteworthy that the Ukrainian authorities themselves have not yet ratified the Rome Statute, the founding document of the ICC, extending its jurisdiction to the territory of the republic.

Although the European Union pointed out the obligation of Kyiv to do this as early as September 5 at a meeting of the Association Council between the EU and Ukraine.

In Kyiv, the slowness in this matter was previously explained by the confidence among the Ukrainian military that the ratification of the statute would hit them first of all.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine believe that legal proceedings can be initiated against them abroad, Ukrainian Justice Minister Denys Malyuska explained to Western media in June.

In addition, in his opinion, the immediate ratification of the ICC statute will change practically nothing, and therefore its delay is not critical.

The only step that the Kyiv authorities have taken so far is changes in the country's criminal procedure code to improve cooperation with the ICC when conducting legal proceedings on the territory of the republic.

Zelensky signed the corresponding decree on September 29.

In particular, the amendments provide for a mechanism for the Prosecutor General of the International Criminal Court to agree on the procedure and list of persons of the office of the ICC Prosecutor, and also allow not only the ICC Prosecutor, but also the persons to whom he delegates powers to conduct proceedings in Ukraine.

• ICC building in The Hague

• Gettyimages.ru

• © Alex Gottschalk/DeFodi Images

Zeal of the West

Western countries support Kyiv in an effort to bring Russia to some kind of responsibility.

Thus, the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, in her Twitter on November 30, stressed that Brussels proposes to create a special international court for Ukraine under the auspices of the UN and intends to seek its widest possible global support.

However, as Gennady Gatilov, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation at the UN Geneva Headquarters, recalled, the creation of such a mechanism requires the sanction of the UN Security Council.

“You have to understand that the decision of the Council on this issue is unlikely to be adopted,” he said in a commentary to RIA Novosti.

In turn, the Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, told reporters that such initiatives are an attempt to “cover lawlessness with unsuitable means” and an example of the “rules-based order” imposed by the West. 

Meanwhile, the world organization itself noted that they are aware of the ongoing discussions on the subject of an international tribunal regarding the situation in Ukraine.

However, any decision to create one (both with and without the participation of the UN) must be made by the UN member countries, Stéphane Dujarric, a representative of the UN Secretary-General, noted at a briefing on November 30.

At the same time, European and American politicians prefer to turn a blind eye to the crimes of the Ukrainian military, which was previously noted at the Russian Embassy in Washington.

Thus, neither the representatives of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, nor the Kyiv authorities suffered any responsibility either for the murder of journalist Daria Dugina, or for the attacks on the pre-trial detention center in Yelenovka and the train station in Kramatorsk, or for the shelling of residential areas of Donetsk, or for the burning of people on May 2, 2014 in the House of Trade Unions in Odessa.

“The Kyiv regime has not yet been punished for its crimes.

The United States and the collective West, in fact, do not even criticize the Ukrainian authorities.

Here everything is “forgotten” very quickly,” the diplomatic mission said on November 22.

In mid-October, the indifference of Western structures to the crimes of the Ukrainian military and special services was also noted by the Deputy Representative of the Russian Federation to the OSCE Maxim Buyakevich.

According to him, terrorist attacks carried out with the knowledge of the Kyiv authorities, as well as massacres of civilians in the territories occupied by Ukrainian formations, do not meet with condemnation in the leadership of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

“On the contrary, in fact, public support is expressed for the criminal acts of the Kyiv regime,” he stated.

Illusion of justice

According to the deputy director of the Institute of History and Politics of the Moscow State Pedagogical University, Vladimir Shapovalov, the creation of "tribunals" against objectionable countries is a common practice in the West, which Kyiv is trying to take advantage of.

“However, such processes cannot be supported by any international legal norms, since they simply do not exist.

The right to create a judicial mechanism belongs only to the UN.

And the Ukrainian president has no right or reason to dictate his demands to this organization.

Moreover, one of its founders is Russia, ”the expert said in a conversation with RT.

At the same time, a certain quasi-mechanism can still be created by Western states, the analyst believes.

“The United States, Great Britain and their henchmen can try to organize it.

However, naturally, this "tribunal" will be illegitimate and its decisions will be insignificant for Russia, since in its essence it will become the personification of interference in the internal affairs of another state.

So there can be no talk of any objective trial here, ”Shapovalov noted.

• UN Headquarters

• AP

• © John Minchillo

According to him, a striking example of such a trial was the trial of the Malaysian Boeing.

“Any such proceedings are unlawful.

After all, the West has no right to impose its will and arrange trials.

Moreover, the Westerners themselves, led by the United States, are accomplices of the Ukrainian regime and, despite all their denials, a party to the conflict.

Consequently, they themselves are potential criminals who need to be judged, ”the expert added.

In turn, Vladimir Bruter noted that the West enthusiastically supports the initiative promoted by Zelensky.

“After all, this is one of the ways to continue to put pressure on Russia and put it in a bad light in the international arena.

Besides, the West sleeps and sees how to confiscate Russian assets frozen abroad.

However, they have no legal grounds for this, so they are now looking for all sorts of ways to bring the base under the seizure, ”the analyst concluded.