Brussels (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – European commissioner for justice and democracy Michael McGrath warns that any move to exempt Russia from punishment for its crimes would be a historic mistake and could trigger new conflicts.
In an interview with Politico, the top EU official, McGrath, said negotiators must ensure the push for a ceasefire does not allow Moscow to escape prosecution.
What concerns does McGrath raise about the US peace plan?
“Donald Trump’s drive to secure peace in Ukraine must not let Vladimir Putin off the hook for war crimes committed by Russian forces,”
McGrath said. According to him, the initial American peace plan included a pledge of full amnesty for actions committed during the fighting, along with an agenda to reintegrate Russia into the global economy.
“I don’t think history will judge kindly any effort to wipe the slate clean for Russian crimes in Ukraine. They must be held accountable for those crimes and that will be the approach of the European Union in all of these discussions,”
McGrath said.
How might impunity trigger future Russian aggression?
He also emphasised that granting impunity for these crimes would create the conditions for future aggression and invasions.
“I believe that that would be a historic mistake of huge proportions. We cannot give up on the rights of the victims of Russian aggression and Russian crimes. Millions of lives have been taken or destroyed, and people forcibly removed, and we have ample evidence,”
the EU commissioner also said.
What evidence supports ongoing investigations into war crimes?
According to reports, Ukrainian authorities report they have initiated investigations into over 178,000 suspected Russian crimes since the beginning of the war.
Last month, a United Nations commission concluded that Russian authorities committed crimes against humanity by targeting Ukrainian civilians with drone attacks. Additionally, they were responsible for war crimes involving the forcible transfer and deportation of civilians.
Moreover, the European instituiotns and other parties have collaborated to establish a new special tribunal focused on the crime of aggression, aiming to hold Russian leaders accountable for the full-scale invasion of Ukraine that started in February 2022.
In March 2023, judges at the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin, prescribing him “allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population [children]” from Ukraine.
