Special Tribunal and Russia’s compensation for damage caused to Ukraine are legally unrelated – Korynevych

The relevant statement was made by Ambassador-at-Large of the Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Ministry Anton Korynevych during the press conference ‘International Military Tribunal: What has changed in a year?’ at Ukrinform.

According to Korynevych, holding Russia fully accountable is a complex matter. For this purpose, it is necessary to fill in two gaps, i.e. the establishment of a Special Tribunal for Russia’s crime of aggression against Ukraine and the creation of an international compensation mechanism based on the register of losses.

“In the documents of the Council of Europe and the EU, and in the decisions of the parliamentary assemblies of international organizations, it is emphasized that both mechanisms should be developed. Legally, they will be separate. That is, the Special Tribunal regarding the aggression against Ukraine is legally and technically unrelated to the international compensation mechanism and the register of losses. But, it is obvious that they are ideologically connected by this whole process of holding Russia accountable. Of course, with each decision of any judicial body regarding the responsibility of Russia as a state or specific Russian officials, the political legitimacy of any processes regarding compensations and reparations will increase,” Korynevych explained.

In his words, the Special Tribunal’s key objective will be to bring individuals to criminal justice.

“Thus, it is not about compensation [for the damage caused by Russian armed aggression to Ukraine – Ed.]. However, I am confident that it [the Special Tribunal – Ed.] will have direct and indirect impact, in one way or another, on the issue of compensation as well. Legally and technically, these are two different mechanisms, but they are necessary to create a system of full responsibility in the case of Russian aggression,” Korynevych noted.