19:20 21.08.2023

Expediency of ratifying Rome Statute should be considered after Ukraine's victory of Ukraine

2 min read
Expediency of ratifying Rome Statute should be considered after Ukraine's victory of Ukraine

Deputy Head of the President's Office of Ukraine Andriy Smyrnov considers irrelevant during Russia's full-scale aggression against Ukraine the discussion on the advisability of ratifying the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court by Ukraine.

"I would not raise the issue of signing the Rome Statute now. Let me explain why. Because not in us, but in the vast majority of our military, someone has planted certain fears that if the Rome Statute is ratified, our military may be prosecuted by International Criminal Court," Smyrnov told journalists on Monday in Kyiv during a break in the international conference "Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine."

Smyrnov said, in fact, they could be prosecuted without the ratification of the Rome Statute.

"Now we need to approach the ratification of the Rome Statute carefully, clearly answering several questions: why do it now, during the war, without appropriate explanatory work among the military that ratification does not bring any new discoveries for them. The second question is why Ukraine needs it," he said.

Smyrnov said a number of countries, including the United States, had not ratified the Rome Statute at all.

"I believe that the issue of studying the feasibility of ratifying the Rome Statute should be postponed for a while - after the victory of Ukraine," Smyrnov said.

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