The Ukrainian judiciary, in cooperation with international bodies, counts several thousand potential war crimes, including rape, murder, bombing of residential buildings and looting.
“Evidence is being collected against all political and military superiors of the Russian Federation,” assures Ivan Mishchenko, a judge at the Supreme Court of Ukraine, the country’s highest judicial body, in an interview with Radio France’s international editorial team, a year after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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To date, the Ukrainian judiciary, which cooperates with the International Criminal Court, the United Nations, the European Court of Human Rights and Eurojust, the European Union’s agency for judicial cooperation, has “convicted more than 71,000 potential war crimes, including rape, murder, Bombing of residential buildings or looting.
“Specialist investigators collect evidence that is classified and sent to court for court decisions to be made.”
Ivan Mishchenko, Justice of the Supreme Court of Ukraine
at franceinfo
According to the magistrate, more than 6,000 cases have already been referred to Ukrainian judges for consideration. His wish “that all those involved, the commanders who support Russia’s military aggression and those who commit these crimes directly on the battlefields, be brought to justice”. Vladimir Putin understood.
An international center responsible for coordinating investigations into the “crime of aggression”.
“The mission is not easy,” admits the judge, knowing full well that the Russian president “will not voluntarily go to The Hague (Netherlands), where the International Criminal Court is located.” “At the moment the principle of immunity is being developed, so there is no legal mechanism to bring Vladimir Putin to court, but we are working on it,” Ivan Mishchenko continues.
In early February, the European Union and Ukraine agreed to set up an international center to prosecute the crime of aggression in Ukraine, the ICPA. This office is responsible for coordinating investigations into the “crime of aggression” against Ukraine, for “collecting and storing evidence for future trials” for war crimes in a logic of international judicial cooperation. This centre, installed at Eurojust’s headquarters in The Hague, The Netherlands, needs to be ‘operational’ by July. In particular, in cooperation with the International Criminal Court, an investigative team has been set up, which so far includes seven countries: Lithuania, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Slovakia, Romania and Ukraine.
For Kyiv, it is primarily a first step before establishing a special tribunal to try Russia’s top officials, with the International Criminal Court (ICC) having jurisdiction only for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Ukraine, and not for the “crime”. “The damage cannot be repaired, but what we can do is ensure those responsible are brought to justice,” said Myroslava Krasnoborova, Liaison Prosecutor for Ukraine at Eurojust , at a press conference on Thursday, firmly believes that impunity for the crime of aggression should never be accepted”.