The Council of Europe plans to establish a Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine in the spring of 2025, Deutsche Welle and European Pravda reported on February 4.
Council of Europe Secretary General Alain Berset said the tribunal would allow international partners, particularly Ukraine and the European Union, to “make full use of our experience and expertise in upholding human rights and the rule of law across the continent.”
The tribunal will be created through a bilateral agreement between Ukraine and the Council of Europe, according to a European Pravda source who attended a February 3–4 meeting in Brussels of the Core Group working on its establishment. Participants at the meeting approved a draft statute for the tribunal, the source said.
An unnamed European Pravda source described the tribunal as “essentially a tribunal against Putin.” Kaja Kallas, the E.U.'s foreign policy chief, echoed this, telling reporters, “There is no doubt that Putin has committed the crime of aggression, which is deciding to attack another country.”
She added that the tribunal is also intended to increase pressure on Putin and his government to end the war. “[It gives] a clear signal to other aggressors or would-be aggressors who are or may be contemplating attacking neighboring countries,” she said.
Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the Russian State Duma’s Foreign Affairs Committee and leader of the ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), dismissed the initiative. “This tribunal has no legitimate basis. Russia has left the Council of Europe, and the E.U. has never dictated terms to us. It’s just another anti-Russian propaganda stunt to distract from the dire state of Ukraine’s Armed Forces on the front line,” Slutsky told TASS.
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