During his diplomatic tours, Volodymyr Zelensky had never stopped in Strasbourg. Its Council of Europe (46 Member States), however, has supported Ukraine without concession since 2022, and had even excluded Russia from its members from the large -scale invasion – something that no other international organization has done.
Admittedly, his support is neither financial nor logistics (he has neither the mission nor the means), but not symbolic either. Protector of legal rules and human rights on the continent, he provides precious expertise, and his European Court of Human Rights has been seized of thousands of requests on abuses committed in Ukraine since 2014, including the Crash of flight MH17, on which a judgment must be rendered in July.
Support of more than 30 states
Very quickly after the invasion, the Council’s parliamentary assembly asked for the creation of a special court to “investigate and initiate prosecution for the crime of aggression committed by political and military leaders” of Russia. Three years of legal expertise and diplomatic discussions later, this court is preparing to be created. Volodymyr Zelensky will sign his birth certificate in Strasbourg this Wednesday. It will operate under the aegis of the Council of Europe, with the announced support of more than 30 states and the European Union.
France “fully supports this very good initiative, says the former Minister Pap Ndiaye, French ambassador to the Council of Europe. It is very important that prosecution is engaged against Russian leaders, by the International Criminal Court on the one hand, to judge war crimes and crimes against humanity committed, but also by this special court, to judge the crime of aggression, which corresponds to what the Nuremberg court called “crime against peace”. “As, for example, to militarily invade one of his neighbors …
34,000 Ukrainian complaints
It is a question of condemning those responsible, but also of sealing a prohibition, “ensuring that destruction, violence and force do not prevail,” sums up the secretary general of the Council, the Swiss Alain Berset.
Russia will also have to pay repairs. The damage register opened by the Council last year has already received 34,000 Ukrainian complaints for material and human losses. Its offices are installed in The Hague, where the new special court should also be installed.
The Hague is also where the NATO summit is currently being held. Ukraine is not a member of it, but Zelensky is there to re -mobilize his supporters … and those who support him less: he must meet Donald Trump there this Wednesday, just before flying to Strasbourg.
