The European Parliament declares the need to bring Russian President Vladimir Putin and the leadership of the country, as well as the leadership of Belarus, to criminal liability for the crime of aggression they committed against Ukraine.

This is discussed in the resolution adopted by the European Parliament over the approaching anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The document was voted in Strasbourg on Thursday during the plenary session. Some 444 MEPs voted in favor, while 26 MEPs voted against and 37 abstained from 507 voters.

"The EP underlines that President Putin, other Russian leaders and their Belarusian allies who planned and gave the relevant orders to start this war of aggression against Ukraine must be held accountable for the crime of aggression they have committed," according to the resolution.

In this regard, the EP called on the Commission and Member States to support accountability for the crimes committed during Russia's aggressive war against Ukraine, especially the crime of aggression, war crimes, crimes against humanity and alleged genocide, and reiterates its call on the Commission and Member States to work together with Ukraine and the international community to establish a special tribunal to investigate and prosecute the crime of aggression committed against Ukraine by Russian leaders and their allies.

In addition, the EP expressed its full support for the work of the International Criminal Court to help end impunity for the perpetrators of the most serious crimes of concern to the international community. "The EP condemns, in the strongest possible terms, the use of sexual and gender-based violence as a weapon of war and stresses that this constitutes a war crime; calls for the EU and host countries of women and girls who have fled Ukraine to guarantee access to sexual and reproductive health and rights services, particularly emergency contraception, including for survivors of rape, and to support the provision of these services in Ukraine," the MEPs said in the resolution.

The EP also noted the need to continue providing humanitarian assistance to Ukraine, including those displaced from Ukraine and within the country. "The EP underlines the continued need to provide humanitarian aid to Ukraine, as well as to address the needs of the millions of people displaced from and within Ukraine, in particular those belonging to vulnerable groups; reiterates that the continued forced relocation and deportation of Ukrainian children, including those from institutions, to Russia and their forced adoption by Russian families is in breach of Ukrainian and international law; underlines that forcibly transferring children of a group to another group constitutes the crime of genocide, according to the Article II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide; calls on the international community, in this regard, to support the Ukrainian authorities’ efforts to collect, document and preserve evidence of the human rights violations committed during the Russian war against Ukraine," according to the document.