While Ukraine relentlessly accuses the Kremlin of war crimes and the International Criminal Court has launched an investigation in this direction, a look back at the notion of “war crime” in international law and the possible consequences for the Russian president , Vladimir Poutine.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine raises questions about whether Russian President Vladimir Putin or his generals will be indicted for war crimes. This is a complex legal issue, especially since Russia – like the United States and China – is not a party to the International Criminal Court (ICC), which generally adjudicates such trials at its headquarters in The Hague.
ICC prosecutor Karim Khan announced on February 28 that he would open an investigation into abuses [l’ouverture de cette enquête a été officialisée le 2 mars]. Ukraine had previously accepted that its territory falls under the jurisdiction of the court.
It is also easier to try senior military officials who are on the ground for alleged war crimes than the political leaders who sent them there. If Putin were to be charged, he would first have to be arrested in a country that admits the jurisdiction of the ICC – which he can easily avoid.
What is the definition of a war crime?
A wide range of acts can constitute a war crime: these include intentional homicide, inflicting suffering, large-scale destruction and seizure of property and land, or the deliberate targeting of civilians, as well as other serious breaches of applicable law during an armed conflict.
The ICC is also competent to judge three other types of crimes: crimes against humanity, genocides and crimes of aggression. ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said there were already reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity had been committed in Ukraine.
What are Ukraine’s accusations against Russia?
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has focused on Russia’s decision, he says, to specifically target civilians, after Ukrainian forces halted an initial offensive by Russian forces on the capital, Kyiv. He called the attack on Freedom Square in Kharkiv, the country’s second largest city in the east, a war crime and called on Westerners for help to end the “crimes that Russia is committing in Ukraine”.
After the Russian strike on the Mariupol maternity ward on Wednesday, March 9, the Ukrainian president notably tweeted that it was“a
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