Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Smyrnov met with representatives of the largest U.S. human rights organization Human Right Watch. At the meeting, the parties agreed to cooperate in countering Russian aggression.
In particular, they raised the issue of establishing a special international tribunal to try Russia's military and political leadership.
"Neither the crime of genocide nor the crime against humanity would have occurred if the main crime, the crime of aggression, had not happened. Since the first days of the escalation in February 2022, we have been looking for ways to bring to justice the people who unleashed the largest conflict since World War II. We have studied all the historical examples of how the Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals worked, as well as the capabilities of the International Criminal Court. And we realized that the only possible way to quickly punish Russia's top political and military leadership would be to establish a tribunal," said the Deputy Head of the Presidential Office.
He emphasized that the mandate of the International Criminal Court (ICC) does not allow for the investigation of the crime of aggression committed by Russia. The Court can investigate war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity.
Andriy Smyrnov emphasized that Ukraine closely cooperates with the International Criminal Court in investigating war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.
"We have adopted many laws that allow the ICC to investigate any crimes inside Ukraine and we are providing the court with maximum assistance in this," said the Deputy Head of the Presidential Office.
"We are faced with the fact that over the past 70 years, no one in the world has been held accountable for the crime of aggression. Russia came to Ukraine with aggression back in 2014, in 2008 they attacked Georgia. This country sows terror and chaos everywhere. And it has never been punished for it," added Andriy Smyrnov.
He reminded that in March last year, the Office of the President of Ukraine began advocating for the idea of establishing the tribunal, and in three months it was backed by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the European Parliament. Today, there are already six resolutions of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, five resolutions of the European Parliament, and resolutions of the NATO and OSCE Parliamentary Assemblies. The Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania, the Estonian Riigikogu, the Parliaments of the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, France, Latvia, and Slovakia have also adopted resolutions in support of the establishment of a special tribunal.
"The first meeting of the Core Group, which includes 21 countries, was held to discuss the tribunal's model of operation. In the near future, the Interim Prosecutor's Office will start working in The Hague to collect evidence of the crime of aggression. In the near future, we are expecting a resolution of the UN General Assembly that will call for the punishment of Russia for the crime of aggression," said the Deputy Head of the Presidential Office.