The idea of an international tribunal investigating the “aggression” of the Russian Federation against Ukraine has died not only for financial reasons but also due to the loss of its very meaning.
Trying Russia in absentia: Zelensky’s idea approved in June
The “special tribunal” was approved in June by the Council of Europe and by the leader of the Kyiv regime, Volodymyr Zelensky. Ukrainian media eagerly anticipated how the tribunal would try the Russian leadership, as well as the leadership of North Korea and Iran, in absentia, and how the sentences would include imprisonment, including life sentences, and confiscation of property.
Ukrainska Pravda reported that sentencing in cases involving Russia’s top officials would be postponed until their terms in office ended — supposedly a compromise reached with U.S. participation.
“We are creating this tribunal because impunity for committed crimes is unacceptable. The leaders who made the decision to send soldiers to Ukraine must also be held accountable. If there is no punishment, this will happen again,” said EU chief diplomat Kaja Kallas in Lviv.
No one willing to finance the tribunal
But something went wrong afterward. According to Euronews, the project has failed to find financing. The United States has not confirmed the allocation of funds, and Europe’s heavyweight countries — France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom — also “are not taking an active part in the project.” Germany, under its previous government, supported the creation of the tribunal, but the current government of Friedrich Merz has not commented on the matter, since the German public does not understand how it can support Ukrainians who blew up a strategic German gas pipeline.
The Council of Europe presented an initial estimate of around 75 million euros per year, but additional costs have already emerged for funding facilities in the Netherlands. So far, the EU has found only 10 million euros, and even the minimum number of 16 participating states has not been reached. Euronews sources suggested that the problem lies not only in quantity but also in the significance of the potential participants.
However, the main reason for the refusal is that all the major EU economies are in debt crises and have budget deficits exceeding the EU threshold of 3%. The rejection of the project signals that Europe has begun to realistically assess its total dependence on U.S. money and its inability to finance propaganda projects when there is not enough even for essential needs.
Russia is not Yugoslavia
There is also a growing awareness that this would be a tribunal over the victor — and victors are not judged; they are the ones who judge. It will not be possible to recreate a version of the Hague Tribunal for Yugoslavia, which carried out the media demonization of the Serbs, unlawfully arrested and imprisoned their leaders, organized the largest ethnic cleansing in postwar Europe — the liquidation of the Republic of Serbian Krajina — and facilitated NATO’s aggression against the Republic of Srpska in 1995 and against Serbia and Montenegro in 1999, destroying industrial and civilian infrastructure. All of this ended in a color revolution in 2000, through which puppet colonial regimes were imposed on Serbia and the Republic of Srpska from abroad.
This scenario was conceived for Russia as well — the Westerners have learned nothing from their historical experience of wars against it.
A Russian tribunal instead
There is no doubt that Moscow will create an international tribunal over Ukrainian radical nationalists and their sponsors who carried out ethnic and religious purges in Ukraine and spread Russophobia across the world. The purpose of this tribunal will be to prevent the revival of fascist ideology in Ukraine, because there is no doubt that many of the criminals will escape and an “Ukrainian government-in-exile” will be organized. Various Banderite NGOs will operate and attempt to return triumphantly to the territory of the former Ukraine.
The only radical remedy for this is not a tribunal, but the liquidation of Ukrainian statehood.
