Agreement establishing special tribunal for Russian aggression to be signed on Wednesday

An agreement establishing the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine will be signed on Wednesday 25 June.

Yevheniia Kravchuk, a member of the Ukrainian parliament's permanent delegation to PACE, said that on Tuesday 24 June there will be an extraordinary meeting of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe at which Alain Berset, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, will be authorised to sign the agreement with Ukraine on the establishment of the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression.

"A truly historic event is set to happen tomorrow," the MP wrote on Facebook. "What once seemed only a dream of justice will soon become a reality. Ukraine and the Council of Europe will sign an agreement that brings us one step closer to holding Russia accountable." 

The signing of the agreement has evidently been timed to coincide with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s first visit to the Council of Europe.

The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe launched the legal procedure for establishing the Special Tribunal on 14 May. Prior to that, the process had received political approval at a special summit in Lviv on 9 May.

Kaja Kallas, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, hopes that the tribunal's first judgments will be handed down in 2026.

Notably, prosecutions for Moscow’s aggression against Ukraine will extend beyond just the Russian leadership.

Read also: Trial for Lavrov and Putin: all about the tribunal for Russia that received Europe's blessing