The ministers of justice of the 27 EU countries, who gathered in Stockholm, said that the European Union wants to bring to justice as soon as possible those guilty of “terrible” crimes committed during the war in Ukraine, Reuters and Agerpres report.

However, European officials do not agree either on the methods of criminal investigation and the search for evidence, or on compensation for the destruction caused by the war.

“There absolutely must be accountability for the horrific international crimes and brutality of what we are seeing in Ukraine (…) the war crimes are clear and obvious,” Irish Minister Simon Harris said.

Among the topics discussed in the capital of Sweden – the country that currently holds the EU presidency – were the collection of evidence and the creation of a new international tribunal to judge Russian aggression.

“No one who commits such war crimes should get away with it. It is very, very important to bring the culprits to justice. The question is how we can do it in a practical and efficient way,” said Swedish Minister Gunnar Strommer.

Slovakia opposed the creation of a new legal organization dedicated to the conflict in Ukraine at the request of Belgium.

Belgian Minister Vincent van Quickenborn said that “these acts of aggression must be condemned not only by European countries or the United States, but also by the vast majority of countries (…) in Africa, Latin America and other countries,” he said.

Complex and long court processes

Reuters estimates that, given the precedents, the legal process will almost certainly be complex and lengthy. A special court established in the Netherlands to consider the attack that shot down the passenger plane MH17 in eastern Ukraine in 2014 did not deliver a verdict until November 2022.

The said court sentenced three men to life imprisonment for complicity in the transportation of the Russian missile system, which was used to shoot down the plane and kill all 298 passengers and crew members on board.

Efforts to prosecute the three non-high-ranking individuals, however, pale in comparison to those needed to prosecute Russian President Vladimir Putin or the military commanders leading Russian forces in the war, the agency said.

If at the beginning of the invasion, 11 months ago, Moscow’s rhetoric emphasized the “denazification” and “demilitarization” of Ukraine, now the Russians blame NATO in particular, considering the alliance to be aggressive and expansionist.

At the same time, the war resulted in the loss of thousands of civilians, drove millions from their homes, and turned many cities into ruins. Attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure, including energy installations, are considered possible war crimes, according to the UN. Russia does not recognize such strikes and declares that it is conducting only a “special military operation” in Ukraine.

The EU is also considering the possible use of Russian assets blocked under sanctions, another legally complex issue discussed on Friday. According to a European official who spoke to Reuters, the Union estimates it holds about 33.8 billion euros of a total of about $300 billion, equal to the value of assets frozen abroad by Russia’s central bank.

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