The European Commission proposed on Wednesday to work on the creation of a special tribunal to judge the “crimes of Russia” in Ukraine. The body also wants to find solutions to mobilize frozen Russian assets to help rebuild the ravaged country, two undertakings that promise to be difficult, however.
At the same time, on the ground of military operations, the Russian forces are maintaining the pressure in order to try to seize Bakhmout, a city in eastern Ukrainian territory in the vicinity of which fighting has been raging since the summer. The Russians had recently claimed the capture of three villages near this city which had 70,000 inhabitants before the war and which is now largely destroyed. This battle took on all the more symbolic importance for Moscow as the conquest of Bakhmout, with the support of the paramilitary group Wagner, would come after a series of humiliating defeats, with the retreats from Kharkiv (north-east) in September and from Kherson (south) in November.
An employee of the Ukrainian embassy in Madrid was also slightly injured on Wednesday by the explosion of a letter bomb intended for the ambassador, leading kyiv to order a reinforcement of security in all its diplomatic representations.
“While continuing to support the International Criminal Court (ICC, headquartered in The Hague, editor’s note), we propose to set up a special tribunal supported by the United Nations to investigate and prosecute the crimes of aggression of Russia” against Ukraine, said the president of the European executive Ursula von der Leyen, in a video posted Wednesday on Twitter.
The proposal should be presented to member states for discussion. The creation of such a tribunal has been demanded on several occasions by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, as well as by the Baltic countries. The ICC only has jurisdiction over war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Ukraine and not over Russia’s ‘crimes of aggression’, as Moscow is not a signatory to the Rome Treaty establishing the Court .
This could not judge Russian President Vladimir Putin, his Prime Minister and his Minister of Foreign Affairs, who benefit from immunity from prosecution during their mandate, notes the Commission. “An ad hoc tribunal with jurisdiction over crimes of aggression would allow the prosecution of Russia’s most senior leaders who would otherwise enjoy immunity,” she continued in a preliminary document. If the proposal has no chance of passing the UN Security Council due to Russian opposition, it may have more resonance in the General Assembly.
The Europeans also want to talk with their partners, particularly within the G7, about their desire to make Moscow pay for the material destruction in Ukraine. “Together with our partners, we will ensure that Russia pays for the devastation it has caused, using the frozen funds of the oligarchs and the assets of its central bank,” said Ursula von der Leyen. According to the EU chief executive, more than 20,000 civilians and more than 100,000 Ukrainian military personnel have been killed or injured since the start of the invasion of Ukraine in February, while the damage suffered by Ukraine is valued at 600 billion euros.
EU member states have already frozen 19 billion euros in assets belonging to Russian oligarchs and some 300 billion euros in Central Bank of Russia reserves are blocked in the EU and other G7 countries . With regard to public assets, the Commission proposes to create “a structure to manage these funds and invest them”. The income thus generated could be used directly for the reconstruction of Ukraine.
Once the sanctions are lifted, these central bank assets should be returned but they could “be linked to a peace agreement to compensate Ukraine for the damage suffered”. With regard to the assets of the oligarchs which have been frozen, their confiscation would only be possible in connection with a criminal offence. The EU is in the process of harmonizing the laws of its member states in order to uniformly punish the circumvention of sanctions, which could serve as a basis for such a measure.
The UN on Thursday launched a record appeal for funds for 2023 in the face of soaring humanitarian needs, driven by the conflict in Ukraine and the effects of climate change, such as the risk of famine in Africa. United Nations humanitarian agencies will need 51.5 billion US dollars (49.6 billion euros) next year, needs up by 25%. These funds will allow them to finance their programs to help 230 million of the most vulnerable people in 68 countries.
“Next year will therefore be the largest humanitarian program” ever launched globally, the head of the UN humanitarian agency Martin Griffiths told reporters. “Droughts and deadly floods are wreaking havoc (…) from Pakistan to the Horn of Africa. The war in Ukraine has turned part of Europe into a battlefield. More than 100 million people are displaced in the world. And all this on top of the devastation the pandemic has wreaked on the world’s poorest,” said Martin Griffiths, who expects 2023 to be in the same vein as 2022.