Ukraine Against Hybrid Formats Of Tribunal For Putin And His Associates - Zelenskyy

Ukraine is working to establish a special tribunal for the crime of Russian aggression against Ukraine and opposes any hybrid formats of such a tribunal. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this at a joint press conference with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo in The Hague (the Netherlands), Ukrainian News Agency reports.

"We will work to establish a separate tribunal because we must condemn the crime of aggression as such, as the most important, as the original crime... We will work without any hybrid formats, we will work on a specific tribunal for responsibility for crimes: murder, torture. We understand who gave the orders. So that these people are not untouchable. This is very important for us. This is one of the fundamental issues... We remember from 2014 the "Minsk agreements" - it was such a hybrid world. We know where that led. Therefore, Ukraine does not want to agree to any hybrid peace, hybrid tribunal as a development of this," he said.

Zelenskyy noted that 35 countries have already joined the group for the creation of a special tribunal (Core Group).

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, Prosecutor General Andrii Kostin said that the tribunal for Russia should be held internationally.

At the end of February, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) supported a resolution to create an international tribunal to prosecute the military and political leadership of Russia and Belarus.

The European Union and G7 countries are inclined to believe that the most realistic prospect of bringing to justice those responsible for the crime of aggression against Ukraine will be a hybrid tribunal (an international tribunal based on Ukrainian jurisdiction).