The Council of Europe has taken another step towards the creation of a Special Tribunal to investigate the crimes of Russia

The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe approved a decision authorizing its Secretary General to prepare documents that will facilitate consultations within the Core Group regarding a potential draft agreement between the Council of Europe and the Ukrainian government on the establishment of a Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine, including its Statute.

This was reported by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba and the ambassador on special assignment of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Anton Korynevych.

The committee of ministers also voted to approve further work on a possible additional agreement on the organization of support for the Special Tribunal, its funding and other issues. Here is the full text of the decision of the KMRE.

"This is an important practical step towards making the tribunal work. Each such step brings us closer to proving that justice for the crime of aggression against Ukraine is inevitable," Dmytro Kuleba wrote.

Aggression Tribunal

For more than two years, Ukraine has been working to create a Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression and bring Putin and other high-ranking Russian officials to justice there. In order to overcome Putinʼs presidential immunity, as well as for the tribunal to be legitimate, it must be supported by the worldʼs leading democracies, first of all the United States — and they are not against it, but not in the format that Ukraine needs.

Ukraine insists on the International Tribunal, and the USA supports an internationalized tribunal, which will be part of the Ukrainian judicial system, but with the involvement of international prosecutors. National courts cannot overcome the immunity of the head of state, but the US does not want to set a precedent that will lead to an investigation of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

• So far, 44 countries have supported the creation of the Special Tribunal to investigate crimes of the Russian Federation. This was also done by a number of European and international institutions, in particular the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the European Parliament, the Parliamentary Assemblies of NATO and the OSCE.