Join 10,000+ Kyiv Independent members today Support our reporting
Skip to content

News Feed

Saturday, April 1
10:51 PM
Moscow-backed Orthodox priest under house arrest. A Kyiv district court placed Russian-led Orthodox Metropolitan Pavlo (Petro Lebid) under house arrest. He is charged with inciting hatred and justifying Russia’s war against Ukraine. The arrest will last for 60 days.
Subscribe to Ukraine Daily
Top News
in Your Mailbox
7:43 AM
General Staff: Ukrainian forces repel 70 Russian attacks. Russian troops are reportedly concentrating their efforts on conducting offensives toward Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka, and Marinka in Donetsk Oblast. Ukrainian forces repelled more than 70 Russian attacks in those directions on March 31, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces said in its morning update.
Saturday, April 1
MORE NEWS

watch us on facebook

Edit post

Minister: Two more countries join Core Group on Special Tribunal for Russian crime of aggression

by The Kyiv Independent news desk March 14, 2023 1:50 PM 2 min read
Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba speaks during a press conference after the Security Council meeting concerning the war in Ukraine at United Nations headquarters on February 24, 2023, in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago via Getty Images)

According to Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, two more countries joined the Core Group on the Special Tribunal for the Russian crime of aggression on March 14.

"Thirty-two states are now working together to hold Russia’s top political and military leadership accountable. Putin and his associates will stand trial," Kuleba said on Twitter.

The minister didn't specify which two states have joined the group. On March 7, Kuleba reported that Greece was becoming a coalition member.

The European Parliament on Jan. 19 adopted a resolution calling on member states to back the creation of a special international tribunal to judge Russian war crimes committed in Ukraine, specifically the crime of aggression. The resolution urged the EU member states to "immediately" prepare for the tribunal's creation in cooperation with Ukraine.

The Core Group held the first meeting on Jan. 26, and its participants will gather again on March 21-22 in Strasbourg, according to the Ukrainska Pravda publication.

According to The New York Times, the International Criminal Court (ICC) plans to open two cases investigating war crimes conducted by Russian forces against Ukraine. The cases are related to the Russian abduction of Ukrainian children and teenagers who were sent to Russian so-called "reeducation" camps and the deliberate attacks on civilian infrastructure. These will be the first international charges brought forward since Russia's full-scale war began in February 2022.

While the ICC can investigate war crimes committed by individuals, it does not have jurisdiction to prosecute the crime of aggression, thus the need to create the Special Tribunal.

From the time it was first conceived as a concept, the crime of aggression was considered a leadership crime — that of leaders who devise state policies that exclude followers, among others, from criminal liability. It was prosecuted for the first time at the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal after World War II.

Commenting on the ICC's alleged intentions to open the cases, the Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said on March 14, cited by Russian state-controlled news agency TASS, that Moscow didn't recognize the jurisdiction of this court.

Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office is investigating some 70,000 cases of war crimes and crimes of aggression allegedly committed by Russian troops since the beginning of the full-scale invasion a year ago.

Report: Western-made parts are used in Russian weapons involved in war crimes
We serve no one but our common values
“We truly need popular support, especially during wartime. Being not dependent on a single money bag telling journalists what to do has always been quite a task in Ukraine. In wartime, that’s even more important.”
Illia Ponomarenko, defense reporter
visa masterCard paypal

Editors' Picks

Support us
X

ENTER YOUR EMAIL TO SUBSCRIBE

Please, enter correct email address

Subscribe

* indicates required
* indicates required

Subscribe

* indicates required
* indicates required