Zelenskyy chairs summit on special tribunal for Russia – Ukraine news / The New Voice of Ukraine

Zelenskyy noted that the International Criminal Court has no mandate over “crimes of aggression,” meaning that a special tribunal is necessary to hold Russia accountable.

He thanked the 37 countries already supporting the initiative, and said that the International Criminal Investigation Center for Russian Aggression will begin operating in The Hague sometime this summer.

“Russia began its aggression against Ukraine in 2014 and made it a full-scale one in 2022, because the idea prevailed in Russia’s leadership that Europe left history to historians and that European peoples and politicians do not dare to protect their values and… defend themselves,” Zelenskyy said.

The president called on foreign leaders to join him in proving that Moscow was wrong in every way: in its military calculations, assessments of Ukraine’s resilience, and of how the “free world values justice.”

“We can discuss among ourselves what the model of a special tribunal should be for the crime of aggression against Ukraine… but I emphasize again: it must be a tribunal,” he added.

“I’m glad we agree that the aggressor’s responsibility for the crime must be inevitable, and that responsibility is for the crime of aggression.”

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba later tweeted that all 37 summit participants confirmed their determination to hold Russia’s leadership accountable for the crime of aggression against Ukraine.

The tribunal initiative has been supported by resolutions of the European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

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