The European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation (Eurojust) on July 3 announced the opening of the International Center for the Prosecution of Crimes of Aggression (ICPA).
According to organizers, the ICPA is meant to serve as a “central database for evidence collected against Russia and other perpetrators of aggression.”
The center seeks to ensure “accountability for the international crimes committed during the vicious war of aggression against Ukraine,” Didier Reynders, commissioner for justice at the European Commission, said at a press briefing to mark the center’s official launch.
Exterior view of the Eurojust building before a press conference in The Hague, Netherlands, on Dec. 5, 2018. AP Photo/Peter Dejong
“We cannot tolerate the gross violation of the prohibition on the use of force, [which is] one of the fundamental rules of the international rules-based order,” Mr. Reynders said at the briefing, which was held at The Hague.
The ICPA, he added, will “provide a structure to support and enhance national investigations into the crime of aggression against Ukraine.”
According to the commissioner, the center will “coordinate closely with investigations by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes that fall within that court’s jurisdiction.”
While The Hague-based ICC has a mandate to prosecute alleged genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, so-called crimes of aggression remain outside its jurisdiction.
In March, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, accusing them both of “forcibly transferring” civilians.
Moscow, for its part, says the charges relate to its efforts to evacuate children from combat zones.
ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan, who also attended the briefing, was quick to stress the court’s impartiality.
“We’re not on the side of Ukraine,” he said. “We’re on the side of justice.”
No Legal Precedent
Speaking at the press briefing, Eurojust President Ladislav Hamran described the ICPA as “a unique international cooperation platform without precedent in legal history.”The center will not have the power to issue indictments, he clarified, but rather would serve as a “coordination platform” for gathering evidence of alleged crimes.
According to Mr. Hamran, the ICPA is meant to help investigators and prosecutors from Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland “who are investigating the crime of aggression.”
“The key purpose of the ICPA is to secure crucial evidence and start building cases here and now,” he said. “We don’t have to wait until the end of the conflict.”
The briefing was also attended by Andriy Kostin, Ukraine’s prosecutor general, who described Russia’s invasion as a “global threat to peace, security, and stability.”
“For this reason,” Mr. Kostin said, “it is paramount to display our preparedness that accountability for the crime of aggression is a central tenet of our political, legal, and moral agenda.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov holds a news conference at United Nations headquarters in New York on April 25, 2023. Mike Segar/Reuters
The newly launched ICPA, he added, “will allow us to streamline our international efforts to facilitate investigation and prosecution of this supreme international crime.”
According to Kenneth Polite, U.S. assistant attorney general, the ICPA “compliments other domestic, regional, and international efforts to promote accountability and combat impunity.”
Speaking at the briefing, Mr. Polite noted U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland’s recent visit to The Hague, where he became “the first [U.S.] attorney general to visit the ICC.”
“The Department of Justice has taken the position that the ICC’s charges and arrest warrants against Putin were justified,” Mr. Polite said.
Notably, the United States—along with both Russia and Ukraine—isn’t a party to the Rome Statute, which established the ICC’s jurisdiction.
“We support all mechanisms for ensuring accountability and justice, whether it is by regional, national, or international actors,” Mr. Polite said. “That includes our colleagues at the ICC and the UN.”
“We’re confident that we [the United States] can support all those actors without necessarily being a member of the Rome Statute,” he added.
‘Very Few Facts’
Moscow, meanwhile, rejects Western claims that it has perpetrated widespread “crimes of aggression” in Ukraine.Late in June, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov asserted that Russia’s Western critics had largely failed to substantiate their myriad allegations.
“We want discussions to be based on facts, and the facts on the basis of which Russia is accused have not been presented to us,” he said at a June 30 briefing.
“We ask them to substantiate their statements with concrete information and evidence—but this hardly ever happens,” Mr. Lavrov added.
Moscow’s top diplomat accused Western commissions of inquiry—which, he said, claim to be “independent”—of harboring blatant anti-Russia bias.
“They travel, talk to the Ukrainian regime, get some information from them, and form their conclusions on this basis,” Mr. Lavrov said.
“They don’t talk to those who live on our side of the line of engagement.”
On June 21, Alexander Bastrykin, head of Russia’s Investigative Committee, said that more than 30 “Ukrainian militants” had been jailed in the Russia-held regions of Donetsk and Luhansk for committing crimes against civilians.
The Epoch Times was unable to confirm the veracity of the claims.
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Last September, Moscow effectively annexed four captured regions, including Donetsk and Luhansk.
Kyiv and its allies decry the invasion and subsequent annexations as an unprovoked war of aggression.
Moscow, for its part, says its “special military operation” aims to protect Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine and halt the further expansion of NATO to its borders.
