Troika’s immunity stands in way of Russia tribunal launch - Kuleba

Currently, the main obstacle to the launch of a special tribunal for the crime of Russian aggression against Ukraine is the reservation retained by a number of countries that it will be impossible to prosecute the so-called Troika - the head of state, prime minister, and minister of foreign affairs.

However, there are ways to solve the existing problem and the only thing that is needed to this end is political will, Foreign Minister of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba said at a press conference following the conference “Restoring Justice for Ukraine” in The Hague, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"The outstanding question is not about the form of the tribunal. I think we found solutions where it can be both international or hybrid. But the question at the core of the problem is overcoming immunities of Troika (Head of State, Head of Government, and Foreign Minister which, by international law, enjoy immunity from other countries’ jurisdiction - ed.)," Kuleba said.

According to him, a groups of countries within the core group have a reservation about that particular issue.

"There is a group of countries who say that we don't think that this Troika can be stripped of immunities. They are parts of the discussion that is taking place in the core group. Another part of the core group opposes this vision," the minister emphasized.

According to him, countries that have such reservations could simply remove them and leave this question at the discretion of the tribunal itself. There is an international legal practice that “the tribunal itself decides on the jurisdiction it possesses," Kuleba said.

In addition, the document on the creation of a special tribunal can be formulated in such a way as “to address the issue of immunity in a precedent, in a way of creating a precedent that will have an ad hoc basis and will not be applicable to other similar cases”.

The head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry stressed that, if politicians seek to serve justice, lawyers will always find a way to achieve it. "And if a different logic had been followed by the international community, the Nuremberg Tribunal would not take place. The International Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia and other tribunals set up by the international community would not take place. So it all starts with the will to deliver justice," he said.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, 57 countries participated in the international conference “Restoring Justice for Ukraine” held in The Hague on Tuesday.