By LVIV. March 4 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Head of the President’s Office Andriy Yermak emphasizes that the creation of a hybrid version of a special tribunal for crimes of aggression is not acceptable for Ukraine, as it will not guarantee the removal of immunity from the military-political leadership of the Russian Federation.
“In January, work on the Tribunal creation gained momentum. The European Parliament called for the creation of the Tribunal without the least delay. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe once again voted for the establishment of the Tribunal and explicitly stated that the International Criminal Court cannot prosecute crimes of aggression. The City Hall of The Hague approved the placement of the Tribunal in the city,” Yermak said on Friday in Lviv during the opening of the international conference United for Justice.
He also recalled that with the participation of representatives of 21 countries, the first meeting of the groups to discuss the models of work of the Tribunal had begun.
“In the near future, the Interim Prosecutor’s Office will start working in The Hague, which will deal with the collection of evidence of the crime of aggression. Ukraine is also waiting for the UN General Assembly resolution, which will call for the punishment of Russia for the crime of aggression. We must punish those who started this war. Punish substantively and demonstratively,” Yermak stressed.
At the same time, Yermak said that some states have spoken out in favor of a hybrid tribunal, but Ukraine cannot agree to such a proposal. “This option is unacceptable for us because we have no guarantees that it will make it possible to remove immunity from the leadership of the terrorist country,” he said.
“And it is the main problem of the hybrid project,” Yermak said.
“Two other options are the creation of a special tribunal based on an agreement between Ukraine and the UN with the adoption of a corresponding resolution of the General Assembly and the creation of a tribunal based on a multilateral open international agreement between the states of the civilized world,” he said.
These two ways, as the head of the President’s Office emphasized, are acceptable and indicate the readiness of the international community to strike a powerful legal blow against specific international criminals.
Yermak summed up: “I call on everyone to show personal leadership in this matter and I am sure that justice must surely prevail and save the world.”
The head of the President’s Office also said that to date, more than 16,000 cases of forced deportation of Ukrainian children have been registered.
In the last year alone, according to him, more than 70,000 war crimes and crimes against humanity were registered in Ukraine.
“It is impossible to find out the number of victims now, but the number is already in the tens of thousands,” Yermak added.
