Top Russian officials may avoid accountability for crimes in Ukraine, judge says
Photo: Deputy Head of Irpin City Court Mykhailo Odariuk (photo: RBC-Ukraine)
The issue of holding Russian war criminals accountable remains unresolved, and there are doubts that even high-ranking officials and generals will face punishment for their actions in Ukraine, stated Judge Mykhailo Odariuk, Deputy Head of the Irpin City Court, in an interview with RBC-Ukraine.
According to him, organizations like the UN do not have sufficient mechanisms to bring Russia to justice.
"This is what we currently see with the UN, an organization that essentially cannot do anything with Russia. Therefore, there are doubts that anything will ultimately be done concerning Russia," emphasized Odariuk.
He noted that since international bodies do not recognize Russia's actions as genocide, there are concerns that even the most high-ranking individuals who gave the orders might avoid responsibility for the crimes committed.
"There are concerns that they will simply be able to evade responsibility. That neither the generals nor the top officials who made the decisions and gave orders to commit crimes in Ukraine will be held accountable," he added.
The judge also expressed outrage that even such obvious facts as Russian statements about the need to destroy Ukrainians are not legally considered genocide at the state level.
"It’s surprising when institutions like the UN do not call this genocide. How can you claim there is no genocide when Russians are openly saying on television that Ukrainians must be destroyed? What is that if not genocide at the state level?" the judge explained.
At the same time, he recalled that even after the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam, experts could not clearly classify the actions as ecocide, as there are no specialists capable of calculating the environmental damage caused and the potential future ecological losses.
"We asked our international experts: 'Wait, so isn’t this ecocide?' They say: 'It’s not certain that it’s ecocide. It needs to be established, proven.' The problem is that, in fact, there are no experts specifically in ecocide who can calculate not only the damage caused but also the potential future environmental harm," Odariuk explained.
It is worth noting that during his interview, Odariuk mentioned that no one in the world had ever considered war crimes during a war.
