Dhe head of the Russian investigative committee has big plans for an international tribunal on alleged Ukrainian war criminals. He proposes Iran, Syria and Bolivia as participants alongside Russia. About 1,300 criminal cases are currently being investigated against more than 400 people, Alexandr Bastrykin told the government newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta at the beginning of the week. Not all of them are already in Russian hands.
But Bastrykin, top Russian politicians and diplomats have made it clear on various occasions over the past few months that they want captured Ukrainian soldiers to be tried by a tribunal. In mid-June, two Britons and a Moroccan who served in the Ukrainian army were sentenced to death in the Russian-controlled “People’s Republic” of Donetsk.
In Ukraine, too, Russian prisoners of war have been tried and found guilty of war crimes. In mid-May, a tanker was sentenced to life imprisonment for allegedly shooting dead an unarmed civilian in a northeastern town. That sentence was reduced to 15 years in prison by the appeals court on Friday. Shortly after the first trial, two artillerymen were sentenced to eleven and a half years in prison for targeting a school. Ukrainian prosecutors say they have already identified hundreds of Russian soldiers to be brought to justice. But when is that even allowed?
Obstacle to prisoner exchange?
The actions of both sides raise legal as well as political questions. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has often said that no war criminal should go unpunished. But the desire for justice can conflict with other goals. Finally, one of the few direct contacts that still exist between Ukraine and Russia are negotiations on the exchange of prisoners of war.
After the dismissal of Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova in mid-July, Ukrainian media reported that Zelenskyy accused her of the quick trials because they conflicted with his goal of bringing as many Ukrainian soldiers as possible home through the negotiations. To resolve this dilemma, the Ukrainian parliament passed a law on Thursday that allows Russian soldiers to be waived if they are to be replaced. The Internet newspaper “Ukrainska Pravda” recently wrote, citing a Ukrainian negotiator, that the Russians had said after the verdicts against the Russian soldiers: “If that’s the case, we’ll put all Azov fighters on trial and you’ll get them back after ten years.” .”
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