How Ukraine should act to punish Russian war criminals and restore justice

Ukraine has been at war for more than 10 years. More than 2.5 of them have been full-scale.

Every day, the aggressor continues to commit international crimes: shelling of civilians and civilian infrastructure, rapes, extrajudicial executions, abductions...

But the need to make the national justice system more efficient does not disappear. We need to do this, among other things, to meet the huge demand for justice that exists in Ukrainian society.

Read more about how to achieve this in the column by Gyunduz Mamedov, Ukraine's deputy prosecutor general (2019-2022) – Punishment not only for Putin: How Ukraine needs to change its war crimes investigation system.

The author notes that in the first half of 2024, more than 135,000 criminal proceedings had been registered under Article 438 of the Criminal Code (Violation of the Laws and Customs of War) for crimes committed after the start of full-scale aggression. But of these more than 135,000 "cases", most are at the initial stage.

"And in order for its effectiveness to increase, the international crime infrastructure needs to be transformed," writes the former deputy prosecutor general of Ukraine.

He writes that, first of all, the interests of victims should be at the core of justice. The justice system also needs to be trusted both domestically and by the international community, and comply with internationally accepted practices, so effective cooperation with foreign partners is required.

One of the necessary steps is to align our legislation with international standards.

And this is where we need to be particularly careful, the author warns.

The ratification of the Rome Statute by the ICC is not enough.

"We copy the names and wording from the Rome Statute to formally comply with the requirements, but do not change the essence," Gyunduz Mamedov underlines.

In his opinion, the best solution would be to create a separate court (like the HACC for corruption offences or the so-called IP court for intellectual property rights).

Now, the scale of challenges and the scale of crimes are fundamentally different. 

Accordingly, these crimes, according to the expert, should be handled by transparently selected individuals with the appropriate specialisation.

"The creation of a new institution, with the right approach and transparent selection (with the participation of international partners), will resolve the issue of trust in such investigations," the author points out.

Given that during the full-scale invasion the number of proceedings investigated by the Service has increased more than 20 times, the creation of a new institution seems quite reasonable.

Moreover, the fact that the investigation of the most serious international crimes is now entrusted to the SSU is conceptually incorrect.

"In my opinion, the national system of investigation of international crimes should not only increase its efficiency, but also strive to become a full-fledged element of the future hybrid justice mechanism that will cover all international crimes committed on the territory of Ukraine, regardless of who committed them," Gyunduz Mamedov explains.