According to the EU, an international public prosecutor tasked with collecting evidence of the crime of aggression committed by Russia in Ukraine can be set up “quickly”. This is a “first step” before the establishment of a special court.

According to the European Commission, this “international coordination center for the prosecution of the crime of aggression” would be based in The Hague at the headquarters of Eurojust, the EU agency for judicial cooperation in criminal matters.

Until the discussions about setting up a special court to try Russia’s crime of aggression in Ukraine find enough international support, “we have to start with a first step,” stressed EU Commissioner Justice Minister Didier Reynders on Friday during a meeting of European justice ministers in Stockholm.

An international public prosecutor’s office for Russia’s aggression against Ukraine could be set up “quickly,” according to Brussels. [Olivier Hoslet – EPA/Keystone]

According to the Belgian commissioner, this structure could consist of the “joint investigative team”, which already includes six member states, Ukraine, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Eurojust, and which the United States is expected to join “in a few weeks”.

Setting up such a floor can be “very quick” according to Didier Reynders. “We have put various proposals on the table. We are in talks with Member States and Ukraine,” he said, adding that the issue would be raised at a meeting between part of the Commission and the Ukrainian government in Kyiv next week.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has jurisdiction only over war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Ukraine, not over Russia’s “crimes of aggression” as Moscow and Kyiv have not signed the Treaty of Rome establishing such jurisdiction. The crime of aggression is attributed to a country’s highest political and military leaders.