Mudra expects Special Tribunal leadership to launch in 2027

Deputy Head of the Office of the President Iryna Mudra has said Ukraine expects to start the next stage of forming the Special Tribunal for the crime of Russia against Ukraine in The Hague—judges, rules, investigations—as early as 2027.

She said this after 36 states and the European Union signed the Agreement on the Governing Committee of the Special Tribunal for the crime of Russia against Ukraine in Chisinau, Moldova.

"Just now in Chisinau, 36 states and the EU concluded the Agreement on the Governing Committee of the Special Tribunal for the crime of Russia against Ukraine," she wrote on Facebook on Friday.

According to her, "next is the formation of the tribunal in The Hague: judges, rules, investigations. We expect to launch next year. The work continues."

"For the first time since Nuremberg and Tokyo, a separate mechanism of responsibility for unleashing an aggressive war against Ukraine appears. Those who started it will bear responsibility. This is already inevitable," Mudra said.

Mudra said that a few years ago "we were told—this will never happen. Legally difficult. Politically sensitive. Too many interests against it. I remember conversations where it was explained to us why it would not work. I remember rounds of negotiations where it seemed like a wall. I remember how the team—lawyers, diplomats, parliamentarians—returned and searched for another way when this one did not pass. And we did it—together."