By KYIV. Sept 14 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The European Parliament recognized the regime of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko as complicit in Russian crimes in Ukraine and called for the creation of a special tribunal for it.
“The European Parliament considers that, by enabling Russia’s unjustified war of aggression against Ukraine, the Lukashenka regime has become an accomplice in the crimes committed by Russia, which implies responsibility for the destruction and damage caused to Ukraine,” according to the text of the resolution on the European Parliament’s website.
In this regard, MEPs believe that a special international tribunal for the crime of aggression committed by Russia against Ukraine should have jurisdiction to investigate not only Putin and the Russian political and military leadership, but also the Belarusian leadership.
The relevant EU institutions call for all necessary measures to be taken to ensure criminal prosecution of Belarusian officials who are complicit in war crimes committed against Ukraine.
According to the resolution, the European Parliament strongly “Condemns in the strongest possible terms the Lukashenka regime’s involvement in Russia’s unjustified, illegal and unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine and its promotion of hate speech, disinformation and propaganda echoing Moscow’s bellicose rhetoric; condemns, in this regard, the regime’s massive provision of ammunition and military hardware to the Russian aggressors, particularly the manufacture of components for the Russian military, as well as the stationing of Russian troops in Belarus.”
The European Parliament said Lukashenko’s regime is also involved in the forced deportation of Ukrainian children to Belarus, where they are subjected to Russification and ideological indoctrination.
The European Parliament also supported the investigation of the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office into the role of Belarus in the deportation of children and believes that the actions of Lukashenko himself and his regime may also amount to a crime against humanity in the form of “deportation or forcible transfer of population” under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
In addition, the Council of Europe is called upon to expand the list of persons subject to EU sanctions to include those involved in the forced deportation of Ukrainian children to Belarus.
