The format for establishin a special tribunal for the crime of aggression against Ukraine may be determined by the end of this year, Deputy Head of the President's Office of Ukraine Andriy Smyrnov has said.

"We really want, and we are cautiously optimistic, that by the end of the year we will be able to come to some kind of real finalization of the model of how the tribunal will work," Smyrnov told journalists in Kyiv on Monday during a break in the international conference "International Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine."

According to him, Ukraine's position is to move away from political issues to formally legal ones.

Smyrnov said the next meeting of the coordination group, which includes 38 countries, is scheduled for September in The Hague.

"We want specific finalized decisions so that the entire civilized world receives a proper mechanism for punishing the commission of a crime of aggression," he said.

Currently, as Smyrnov said, three different models for the creation of a tribunal are being discussed. "Ukraine insists and believes that the most authoritative, legitimate, internationally recognized model is the creation of a tribunal through a decision of the UN General Assembly," the Deputy Head of the President's Office said.

Smyrnov also said: "One should not underestimate the position of our key international partners - the United States, France, Great Britain, Germany - who, for their part, are advocating the possibility of creating a hybrid tribunal as part of the Ukrainian judicial system."

"Ukraine is categorically against this model of creating a tribunal for several reasons. The key one is that during martial law, the creation of such a court will require changes to the Constitution. This will be impossible," the deputy head of the President's Office said.

As he noted, there is a risk that the legal assessment of the crime of aggression committed by Russia against Ukraine will actually narrow down to the level of an interstate conflict between the two countries.

"And third, we don't need a tribunal's decision in the name of Ukraine, we need a decision in the name of the entire civilized world," Smyrnov said.

"They are afraid of the possible creation of a precedent, which in the future would lead to an audit, an audit of various military companies in which partner countries took part," the deputy head of the President's Office said.

According to him, negotiations on the format of the future tribunal within the framework of the work of the coordination group are at the stage of a "battle of arguments."

"We are studying the pros and cons of different models. I can say one thing for sure: we have not supported and will not support the idea of creating a hybrid tribunal precisely as part of the judicial system of Ukraine. There are various other compromise versions that we cannot tell you about now, they are still diplomatic secret, we are discussing them behind closed doors, but we want to go to the finalization of agreements with key partners regarding the model and work of the tribunal," the deputy head of the President's Office said.

Smyrnov drew attention to the fact that Ukraine's position is that the decision of the Aggression Tribunal should be internationally recognized.

"This requires legitimacy, authority and, in fact, the maximum dissemination of the decision of the tribunal around the world. The Council of Europe is also an interesting model, by the way, we have considered different versions of international tribunals, we have not yet adopted a decision. For example, a tribunal can be established as part of a judicial systems of another developed country, and from above the resolution of the UN General Assembly in support of this tribunal is voted, which opens up the possibility for rapid ratification by all members of the UN in the civilized part of the world," Smyrnov said.