The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen has said the EU is discussing setting up a specialised court backed by the United Nations to investigate Russia’s actions in the Ukraine War.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the EU chief said, “We are ready to start working with the international community to get the broadest international support possible for this specialised court,”
She added that the damaged suffered by Ukraine thanks to the War must be paid by Russia and its oligarchs, a figure estimated at around 600 billion euros. “We have blocked 300 billion euros of the Russian Central Bank reserves and we have frozen 19 billion euros of Russian oligarchs’ money.”
The International Criminal Court, launched an investigation into the alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by Russia in the Ukraine War just days after Moscow’s Feb. 24th invasion. However, the Hague-based court has no jurisdiction to prosecute aggression in Ukraine.
“While continuing to support the International Criminal Court, we are proposing to set up a specialised court, backed by the United Nations, to investigate and prosecute Russia’s crime of aggression,” von der Leyen added in the statement.
According to EU officials, the support of the United Nations for the specialised court is “essential” to help resolve the issue of immunity from prosecution for high ranking officials such as a head of state.
Russia, which calls its actions in Ukraine a “special military operation”, has consistently denied targeting civilians and other war crimes.
