The Nuremberg Trials of the XXI century
On February 24, 2022, at 4 am Kyiv time, in violation of international law, ignoring the historical heritage of the Ukrainian people, the troops of the Russian Federation cynically and vilely invaded the sovereign territory of Ukraine.
On the first day of the war, Russian armed forces conducted aerial attacks and bombardment of military and industrial facilities, as well as housing infrastructure in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kherson, and other heroic cities of Ukraine.
Terror and intimidation of the local population began in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.
Military aggression against Ukraine is evidence of an unprecedented violation of international law, which will undoubtedly entail the most severe global legal consequences for the aggressor.
The borders of modern Ukraine are internationally recognized, and any military aggression against Ukraine is prohibited by international law. This is stated not only in the so-called Budapest Memorandum of 1994 but also in other international legal acts, where Russia is a party to the treaty and has undertaken international obligations to ensure peace.
On December 5, 1994, a Security Guarantee Memorandum was signed in Budapest with the participation of Ukraine, Russia, The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the United States of America in connection with Ukraine's accession to the Treaty on the
Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. According to the provisions of the memorandum, Russia, together with the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, as well as the United States of America, reaffirmed to Ukraine their commitment to respect Ukraine's independence and sovereignty and existing borders. Also, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the United States of America reaffirmed their commitment to refrain from threatening or using force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine and that none of their weapons will ever be used against Ukraine except in self-defense or in any other way by the Charter of the United Nations.
The Agreement on the Establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States of December 8, 1991. Ukraine and Russia are parties that recognize and guarantee respect for each other's territorial integrity and the inviolability of existing borders.
The UN General Assembly Resolution confirmed the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders after the first military aggression by Russia and the annexation of part of the territory of Ukraine in 2014. The exact Resolution does not recognize the legality of any change in the status of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the quality of the city of Sevastopol.
It is worth noting that out of 193 UN Member States: 100 voted in “favor,” 11 — were “against,” 58 — were “abstained,” and 24 — did not vote.
Thus, in the international legal sense: Russia is an aggressor country that has violated its international obligations and invaded the territory of a sovereign independent state with war.
As a result, Russian Federation has lost credibility as a subject of international law capable of complying with international public obligations to ensure peace.
The first inevitable consequence of the war was the extreme international isolation of the aggressor.
The United States and Europe have imposed on the aggressor country the most severe sanctions ever imposed since World War II. Approximately 80 countries of the world have joined the international isolation of the aggressor. With each passing day, the imposed sanctions increase economic and political pressure on the aggressor, plunging the aggressor into crisis, and its economy is returning to the state of the 1990s.
Russia not only illegally violated the territorial integrity of Ukraine but also uses methods of warfare prohibited by international treaties, uses prohibited weapons, deliberately destroys the civilian infrastructure of peaceful cities, rapes, and uses tortures and mocks against civilians. Russia and the Russian Armed Forces are the most vicious war criminals of the 21st century.
As of March 17, 2022, the Russian aggressor has already destroyed 3,500 infrastructure facilities in Ukraine, including 230 transport infrastructure facilities, 165 life support facilities for the population, 651 residential buildings were utterly destroyed, and 3,780 residential buildings were damaged. And by the beginning of April, the number of destroyed homes had reached almost 7,000.
According to the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, as of April 14, 308 hospitals were damaged, 24 of which are beyond repair, and 70 ambulances were fired upon.
About 1,200 missiles were fired by Russia and Belarus (from the territory of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus) toward peaceful Ukrainian cities and towns.
Mass war crimes were committed in Bucha, Irpin, Gostomel, Borodyanka, Nizhyn, Bobrovytsia, and other cities that were subjected to military aggression and were temporarily under occupation will soon be the subject of the International Criminal Court.
The International Criminal Court in The Hague (Netherlands) was established under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in 1998. The Hague case on Russia's war crimes could become the new Nuremberg trial of the XXI century.
According to this Statute, the Court has jurisdiction over such crimes: genocide against humanity, war crimes, and crimes of aggression.
Unfortunately, all of the mentioned above crimes were committed by Russia and its barbaric army against Ukrainian children, women, men, cities, and towns against Ukraine overall.
The committed crimes have no statute of limitations, and the punishment will be severe and inevitable.
Considering the heroic city of Mariupol and Volnovakha exclusively, where hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians were deliberately blocked; tortured residents of Irpin, Bucha, Gostomel, and Borodyanka; 1,100 destroyed buildings in Kharkiv; forced relocation of children and 40,000 civilians of Ukraine without their will to the territory of the aggressor; forcing residents of Kherson, Donetsk and Luhansk regions to take part in hostilities against Ukraine, - this is the actual genocide of the Ukrainian people. This genocide is mentioned in Article 6 of the Rome Statute.
The Russian Armed Forces are also ruthlessly committing crimes against humanity, violating all universal law principles.
The entire world community has witnessed the commission of crimes against humanity by Russia and the Russian army. The crimes listed in Article 7 of the Rome Statute take place in the war against Ukraine: murders; extermination; enslavement; deportation and forced displacement; imprisonment and other cruel physical deprivation of liberty; tortures; rapes, sexual violence; persecution on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender motives and enforced disappearance of people.
The Rome Statute criminalizes many atrocities condemned by the world community. Still, unfortunately, some of the most brutal ones continue to be committed by the Russian soldiers, and Ukrainian and international institutions are already recording evidence of this.
Such as: numerous premeditated murders; torture and inhuman treatment; intentional infliction of severe suffering and serious bodily injury and harm to health; illegal deportation, displacement, unlawful deprivation of liberty; hostage taking; deliberate attacks on the civilian population as overall and on individual civilians, who do not take a direct part in hostilities; deliberate attacks on civilian objects, in other words, objects that are not military targets; intentional striking of personnel, objects, materials, units or vehicles involved in the provision of humanitarian assistance or in a peacekeeping mission in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations; intentional attack, when it is known in advance, would cause accidental death or injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects or major, long-term and serious damage to the environment, which would be manifestly inconsistent with the concrete and immediately expected overall military superiority; attack on unprotected and non-military targets: city, village, housing or building; direct or indirect movement by the state, that occupies the territory, moves part of its own civilian population to the occupied territory, or the deportation / relocation of the population of the occupied territory or parts thereof within or outside that territory; deliberate targeting of buildings and constructions intended for: religious purposes, education, art, science or charity, historical monuments, hospitals and places of concentration of the sick and wounded, provided that they are not military targets; destruction or seizure of enemy property, except in cases, when such destruction or seizure is insistently dictated by military necessity; forcing the citizens of the opposite side to take part in hostilities against their own country, even if they served in army of the belligerent before the start of the war; looting of a city or town, even if it is captured by assault; use of weapons, ammunition and equipment, as well as methods of waging war of such kind, that may cause excessive damage or unnecessary suffering or inherently non-selective in violation of the international law of armed conflict; raping, direct targeting of buildings, materials, medical institutions and vehicles, as well as staff and other heinous crimes.
Rape of Ukrainian women, kidnapping of Ukrainian activists and city mayors, destruction of civilian objects in Kharkiv and Chernihiv, looting in the cities of Irpin, Bucha, Gostomel, Borodyanka, destruction of civilian buildings in Kharkiv, Kyiv, Sumy, occupation of Kherson, Nova Kakhovka, Energodar; Mariupol and crimes against its heroic population - all this will be the subject of the new Nuremberg Trials of the XXI century.
On March 15, the US Senate unanimously passed the Resolution, which calls for an investigation into Russian President Vladimir Putin as a war criminal.
On March 23, the Polish Sejm declared Putin, a war criminal.
42 countries have already appealed to the International Criminal Court to investigate Russia's war crimes against Ukraine.
The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution, “Aggression against Ukraine,” which condemns the Russian invasion of Ukraine and demands that Russia immediately withdraw its troops from Ukrainian territory.
On March 23-24, 140 UN member states voted in favor of the UN General Assembly Resolution against Ukraine, “Humanitarian consequences of aggression against Ukraine,” 38 states — “abstained,” Russia, Belarus, North Korea, Eritrea, Syria — “against.”
The UN Resolution notes: “The military offensive of the Russian Federation on the sovereign territory of Ukraine and its humanitarian consequences are on a scale that the international community has not seen in Europe for decades.”
At the same time, the UN recalls its demand for Russian Federation “immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw all its armed forces from the territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders.”
Russia has become an outcast of the civilized world.
As a result of egregious violations of international law and the principles of humanity, Russia has also turned into a toxic state and a legal community. Lawyers representing Russia at the UN International Court of Justice refused to help it.
“It has become impossible to represent in forums dedicated to the application of the law a country that so cynically despises it”, - wrote Alain Pellet, a professor of international law at the University of Paris, who, until February 24, 2022, was a lawyer for Russia at the UN International Court of Justice. Continuing, he noted: “Russia's deadly attack trampled” principles of international law recognized by the entire civilized community.
Today, certain regions of Ukraine are experiencing a humanitarian catastrophe, and according to Ukrainian government estimates, the damage from the war could reach one trillion US dollars. According to World Bank estimates, as a result of Russia's war against Ukraine, poverty could reach almost 20% and could rise up to 59%.
At least 183 children were killed during the Russian invasion, а 342 children and more than 2,500 adult civilians were injured. According to the UN, about 4.2 million people left Ukraine.
In Ukraine, 1,071 educational institutions were damaged, and 95 are not subject to restoration.
Thanks to the courage of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the unprecedented resistance of the Ukrainian people, powerful volunteer movement, unification of the international community, and diplomatic work, Russia is absorbing into an unheard for itself economy and a political crisis that will be the most severe in its modern history. It will end with the collapse of Putin's Russia.
Everyone's contribution to the fight for justice is essential. We will win!
