At a conference in Lviv, in western Ukraine, the establishment of an international center for the prosecution of those responsible for the war in Ukraine was announced on Saturday. “Russia must be held accountable for (the) horrific crimes. Putin must also be held accountable,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said during a speech.
After it became clear in the spring of 2022 which atrocities had taken place in Bocha, a suburb of the Ukrainian capital Kiev, von der Leyen instructed her Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders to investigate how those responsible could be brought to justice. “I was there myself and was able to see the atrocities committed by the Russian troops. The evidence is becoming increasingly clear that there have been direct attacks on civilians and on energy and other infrastructure,” von der Leyen said again on Saturday. She cited torture, sexual violence and summary executions as examples of such atrocities.
The problem, however, is that the International Criminal Court (ICC) is competent to prosecute genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and ‘crimes of aggression’, as the Russian attack on Ukraine is described, but Moscow does not recognize the ICC. That is why work is underway to set up a separate tribunal to try Russian President Vladimir Putin and others responsible for the war.
The establishment of the new international center (ICPA) is now the first concrete step in this direction. The participants of the United for Justice conference in Lviv signed an agreement on this on Saturday, von der Leyen announced.
Nuremberg
At the conference, Commissioner Reynders announced on Friday that the ICPA has the support of all 27 EU member states and that it will be linked to the international investigation team investigating evidence of war crimes in Ukraine. “It will ensure that investigations supported through that team are done in a coherent and cooperative manner,” said the Belgian.
US Attorney Merrick B. Garland also attended the conference in Lviv on Friday. He said that the US supports efforts to prosecute those responsible for the war in Ukraine, and that the example of the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi leaders in the 1940s should be looked at.
In the margins of the conference, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday. She once again called on EU countries to provide fighter jets and said she hoped that accession talks with Kiev could start this year.
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