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Posted On

06
March
2023

President's Office dpty head: Prompt establishment of tribunal for crimes of aggression to affect war course, narrow geography of Putin's movement

LVIV. March 6 (Interfax-Ukraine) – It is impossible to allow the creation of a special tribunal to hold the top military and political leadership of Russia accountable for crimes of aggression according to risky models, there are optimal options for creating a tribunal, the introduction of which will change the course of the war, Deputy Head of the President’s Office Andriy Smyrnov has said.

“We hope that the world will be able to unite around the idea of the irreversibility of punishment for crimes. Today we are discussing how a tribunal can be created and how it should work. There are models that give us great optimism that we will be able to quickly prove the guilt of individuals in committing the crime of aggression,” Smyrnov said at the United for Justice international conference in Lviv on Saturday, March 4.

On the other hand, according to him, there are models that “contain great risks that the legal assessment of this crime has a chance to turn into an actual interstate conflict between the two countries.”

“This cannot be allowed,” Smyrnov said.

He said the crime of aggression has no statute of limitations, but it must be punished and done as quickly as possible.

“I am convinced that if we can quickly establish and make such an international mechanism work, it will undoubtedly affect the course of this aggressive war,” the President’s Office deputy head said.

At the same time, he said he was not sure about the possibility of ensuring the physical presence of Putin at the tribunal. “But if we manage to narrow down the geography of his international movement to several countries using such mechanisms and tools, if he dies in the status of an internationally recognized criminal, this tribunal already makes sense,” Smyrnov said.