“Russia will have to be held accountable regardless of the peace agreement”

Russia will have to answer for the war crimes committed in Ukraine and pay for the destruction committed whatever the future peace agreement, said the head of diplomacy of the European Union Josep Borrell on Sunday.

“Peace, for it to be peace and not just a ceasefire, must be just and lasting,” stressed Mr. Borrell, the first senior European leader to visit Ukraine since the election in the United States. United by Donald Trump, whose promise of a rapid end to the war makes the Ukrainians fear being forced to give in to Russia’s territorial demands.

“It is a warning to those who say that this war must stop, and therefore they might as well end it as quickly as possible, no matter how,” added Mr. Borrell during a trip to the Cherniguiv region (north).

“What matters is that the war ends in a way where there is accountability, that it is not just an economic reconstruction, but that everyone is accountable” for their actions, he said. said, after visiting the basement of a village school in Yahidne where 300 Ukrainian civilians had been detained for a month in atrocious conditions by Russian troops after the 2022 invasion.

According to the kyiv authorities, 11 people died during this captivity which ended when the Russian forces had to retreat.

Frozen assets

Mr. Borrell also suggested that the approximately $300 billion in Russian state assets frozen by the West could be used for the reconstruction of Ukraine after the war. “This could be used to pay these bills and for compensation to the people who suffered, for the destruction caused by the Russian invasion,” Mr. Borrell said.

The new president-elect of the United States Donald Trump questioned during his campaign the continuation of American aid to Ukraine and said he could end the war “in 24 hours”, without specifying how. Its recent victory has sparked fears in Ukraine and Europe that kyiv could be pressured into making concessions to Russia to secure a quick peace deal.

War crimes

According to Ukrainian authorities, around 140,000 war crimes cases have been opened since the start of the Russian invasion. President Vladimir Putin and several senior Russian military officials are the subject of arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court. Ranked soldiers have already been tried in absentia in Ukraine for individual acts, but bringing those responsible to court remains a challenge.

For kyiv, the question of prosecuting crimes attributed to Russia is therefore an integral part of a possible peace agreement. Efforts to establish an international tribunal have not been successful and for the moment international partners like the EU and the United States have mainly helped the Ukrainians gather evidence and conduct their own investigations.

ATS