(Moscow) Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday accused ‘neo-Nazis in Ukraine’ of committing crimes against civilians on International Holocaust Victims Day, rhetoric he uses to justify his offensive military.
“Forgetting the lessons of history leads to the repetition of terrible tragedies. Proof of this are the crimes against civilians, ethnic cleansing (and) punitive actions organized by neo-Nazis in Ukraine,” Putin said in a statement.
“It is against this evil that our soldiers are bravely fighting,” he added.
To justify Russian intervention, Vladimir Putin has repeatedly denounced “the genocide” according to him of the Russian-speaking populations of eastern Ukraine and described the regime of Volodymyr Zelensky as “neo-Nazi”.
“Any attempt to revise our country’s contribution to the Great Victory (during the Second World War, editor’s note) actually amounts to justifying the crimes of Nazism, opening the way to the rebirth of its murderous ideology”, hammered the Russian President in this statement issued by the Kremlin.
Mr. Putin also mourned “the millions of innocent dead – Jews, representatives of other nationalities – who were shot, tortured, who died of starvation and disease” during the Holocaust.
Exceptionally this year, due to the conflict with Ukraine according to Warsaw, the representatives of Russia were not invited to the celebrations of the 78e anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in southern Poland.
Until now, Russia had always taken part in the ceremonies held annually on January 27.
“Indifference and hatred kill,” says Zelensky, commemorating the Holocaust
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stressed on Friday, International Holocaust Victims Day, that ‘indifference and hatred’ continue to kill, alluding without naming Russia’s military offensive .
“Today, as always, Ukraine honors the memory of the millions of victims of the Holocaust. We know that together, indifference and hatred kill,” Zelensky, himself a Jew, said in a social media video.
“Indifference and hatred together create Evil”, he added, before calling on “the nations of the world to overcome indifference so that there is less room for hatred”.
PHOTO SERGEI SUPINSKY, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
Volodymyr Zelensky
The Ukrainian president did not explicitly mention Russia and the invasion of his country in this video.
Moscow continues to accuse Ukraine of being ruled by Nazis seeking to exterminate Russian speakers to justify its invasion. Russian President Vladimir Putin repeated this again on Friday in his statement dedicated to the day of remembrance of the victims of the Holocaust.
Russia’s crime of aggression in Ukraine: an international prosecutor’s office can be set up “quickly”, according to Brussels
An international prosecutor’s office responsible for gathering evidence of the crime of aggression committed by Russia in Ukraine can be established “quickly”, in a “first step” before the establishment of a special tribunal, the European Commissioner estimated on Friday. Justice Didier Reynders.
This “international coordination center for the prosecution of the crime of aggression” would be located in The Hague at the headquarters of Eurojust, the EU agency for judicial cooperation in criminal matters, according to the Commission.
Until talks on establishing a special tribunal to try Russia’s crime of aggression in Ukraine garner sufficient international support, “we need to start with a first step”, Reynders stressed during the of a meeting of European Ministers of Justice in Stockholm.
According to the Belgian commissioner, this structure could be made up of the “joint investigation team” which already involves six Member States, Ukraine, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Eurojust, and which the United States should join “ in a few weeks “.
Setting up such a floor can be “very quick”, according to Mr. Reynders. “We have put different proposals on the table. We are in discussion with the Member States, with Ukraine”, he indicated, adding that the subject would be raised next week during a meeting in Kyiv between part of the Commission and the Ukrainian government.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) only has jurisdiction over war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Ukraine, not Russia’s ‘crimes of aggression’, as Moscow and Kyiv are not signatories of the Treaty of Rome establishing this jurisdiction.
The crime of aggression is attributable to the highest political and military leaders of a country.
At the end of November, the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen proposed to work on the creation of a special tribunal “supported by the United Nations” to try these crimes of aggression, as claimed by Kyiv.
The Commission has submitted two options: a special international court, based on a multilateral treaty, or a hybrid court, governed by Ukrainian law, but comprising international judges.
This last solution is favored by Berlin, which doubts that the establishment of a special international tribunal will garner the necessary support within the United Nations. But several other EU countries are opposed to it, believing that a court under Ukrainian law would not allow the trial of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his closest entourage.