The special tribunal over Russia will not work in 2025, but there will be progress in this matter.
This was stated by the Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Irina Mudra.
Special tribunal over the Russian Federation in 2025: what to expect
– We have developed a certain roadmap with deadlines, as we see the creation of this tribunal. During 2025, there will be a significant shift in the issue of creation. It will not work, but much will be done, agreed upon and approved in order to have an understanding by the end of the year regarding the structure of this tribunal, statutory documents, location and other organizational issues, — Irina Mudra reported.
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The deputy head of the OP also said that the idea of creating a special tribunal arose immediately after the start of a full-scale war of the Russian Federation against Ukraine in 2022, specifically for the crime of aggression.
After all, the Ukrainian side understood that the International Criminal Court (ICC) lacked jurisdiction, lacked the authority to prosecute for the crime of aggression against Ukraine.
As the representative of the Presidential Office notes, at that time Ukraine had not ratified the Rome Statute, nor had the Russian Federation, and therefore the ICC does not have such powers with respect to Ukraine.
Considering this, at the beginning of 2023, a coalition of states was created – the Coordination Group, the purpose of which is to discuss and find legal solutions for the creation of a tribunal. Today, according to Irina, the group includes 41 states.
The Deputy Head of the OP noted that there has already been significant progress in the creation of a special tribunal. Following the coalition meetings in Vienna and Riga, the Ukrainian side was able to agree on the tribunal model.
Therefore, it will be created based on the agreement with the Council of Europe, since it was on the model of the tribunal – whether it will be international or internationalized – that the heated discussions continued.
Therefore, according to Irina, the model based on the agreement with the Council of Europe will be considered international, that is, it will be an international tribunal.
In addition, Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Irina Mudra added that the creation of the tribunal itself is now much more realistic than it was in the summer of 2024.
Let's add, that earlier the Ambassador-at-Large of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Anton Korinevich said that the creation of a special tribunal on the basis of a bilateral agreement between Ukraine and the Council of Europe is the most promising format.
Recall that at the end of June 2024, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted a resolution Legal and Human Rights Aspects of the Aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, which speaks of the creation of a special tribunal for the aggressor country.
