Tribunal for Russia's aggression against Ukraine moves closer to reality

As reported, 36 countries and the European Union expressed their intention to join a new Enlarged Partial Agreement on the establishment of the special tribunal for Russia.

Secretary General Alain Berset said these states had taken a decisive step toward the actual creation of the tribunal and toward recognizing responsibility for the aggression against Ukraine.

“The Special Tribunal represents justice and hope. Action now needs to be taken to follow up on this political commitment by securing the Tribunal’s functioning and funding. The time for Russia to be held to account for its aggression is fast approaching,” he said.

Berset called on countries to complete all necessary national procedures for joining the tribunal as quickly as possible.

The tribunal will investigate, prosecute, and try those who bear primary responsibility for the crime of aggression against Ukraine. Its goal is to fill the jurisdictional gap of the International Criminal Court and hold senior officials accountable for the crime.

“The moral foundation of Europe and the world will only be restored when the crime of aggression against Ukraine is punished. It is not a matter of the past. It is a matter of the future. A matter of restoring a common space of truth, justice, and trust,” said Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha.

The ministers of the Council of Europe also welcomed broad international support for the Convention establishing an International Claims Commission for Ukraine and called for further participation to ensure the rapid creation of a compensation mechanism.

The International Claims Commission will become the second part of a broader compensation mechanism linked to Russia’s war against Ukraine and will be based on the Register of Damage for Ukraine.

The Register of Damage, created in 2023, collects and records compensation claims submitted by individuals, organizations, and state bodies in Ukraine.

So far, 44 countries and the European Union have joined the Register, which has already received more than 150,000 claims.

Special tribunal for Russia

Work on establishing a Special Tribunal for the crime of Russian aggression against Ukraine has been ongoing in Europe.

Last June, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Council of Europe Secretary General Alain Berset signed an agreement on creating the tribunal.

Earlier, on May 9, 2025, a key international meeting took place in Lviv, where foreign ministers from dozens of European countries and Council of Europe representatives gave the political green light to the tribunal’s creation.

Since then, the process has moved into the legal phase, with countries preparing agreements, gathering support, and building the tribunal’s legal framework, which is planned to be based in The Hague.

The tribunal will have the status of an international body. Its work will be based on Article 8 bis of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, as well as provisions of UN General Assembly Resolution No. 3314.

It is expected that the court will be able to issue rulings even in the absence of the accused, including against Russia’s political and military leadership and potentially also officials from Belarus and North Korea.

Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha recently stated that Ukraine plans to legally finalize the creation of the special tribunal for Russia’s crime of aggression as early as May. The required number of participating countries has already been secured.