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What are the investigations into war crimes in Ukraine?
Since Russia invaded Ukraine, more than 74 500 war crimes have been committed in Ukraine. However, bringing them to trial is not an easy task. A high standard of proof is required for a successful prosecution.
The International Criminal Court's (ICC), arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin is only one strand of a complex web of international and national legal moves regarding alleged war crimes committed in Ukraine.
Both Western and Ukrainian authorities claim there is evidence of murders, executions, shelling of civilian infrastructure, forced deportations, and child abductions, as well as torture and illegal detention.
Successful prosecution of war crimes requires a high standard of proof in a situation that restricts access to suspects and crime scene evidence and has overlap between national and international courts.
He visited the Kyiv Region, where civilians were killed in Bucha, as well as the Kharkiv Region, which is home to residential areas in Borodianka, which was also hit by shelling.
The arrest warrants issued to Mr. Putin and Maria Lvova–Belova, Russia's Commissioner of Children's Rights, are theoretically the first steps toward a trial. However, given current circumstances, it is almost impossible to capture and arraign Russia's President.
A new tribunal is being created to prosecute the Russian invasion, which Moscow calls a "specially military operation", as a crime against aggression. Due to legal constraints, the ICC cannot bring such a case.
Since the invasion began on February 24, 2022, they have been investigating alleged violations of international law, mainly in the east and south, where land was retaken from Russian forces.
According to Ukrainian prosecutors, domestic courts are now focusing on "direct perpetrators" crimes. At least 26 war crime suspects have been tried, convicted, and sentenced for rape, murder, shelling residential infrastructure, and cruel treatment, as well as pillaging.
Wayne Jordash, the leader of the mobile justice units deployed to support Ukraine's investigations, said that "the more difficult task of trying to build a complex aggregate case which establishes the responsibility of those at the higher political or military leadership is still a task which remains to be completed."
"What is clear from the prosecution's investigation over the past year is that there's a criminal plan and that the Russian military operation was inherently criminal in the sense that you can't seek to extinguish Ukrainian identities without the massive commission war crimes and crimes against mankind possibly genocide," Mr. Jordash stated.
The European Union announced recently the creation of an international center for the prosecution of "aggression" against Ukraine. This center is currently under the Eurojust European prosecuting authority and is also located in The Hague. This could be the foundation of a new tribunal.
A United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry for Ukraine also collects and documents violations of international humanitarian laws to feed into the evidence being shared at Eurojust. This could also be used to support cases being handled by the ICC.
The crime of aggression can be broadly defined as the attempt to invade or gain political and/or military control over another sovereign state. Although the ICC is the permanent court for war crimes in the world, it cannot prosecute aggression.
According to the United Nations Human Rights Office, both Russia and Ukraine tortured prisoners of war in the almost nine-month conflict. They cited examples that included electric shocks and dog attacks.
A tribunal that could bring Russian President Vladimir Putin to trial for aggression would have to be an international one. It must be based on a source of international law through a multilateral agreement.
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