Special Ukraine Envoy says “Putin’s arrest possible” Ahead of War Crimes Tribunal

In an exclusive interview with Kyiv Post, Anton Korynevych, a Foreign Ministry special envoy and member of the ad hoc working group for establishing the tribunal, said that “the Special International Tribunal will try crimes of aggression against Ukraine committed exclusively by the senior leadership of Russia.”

“This tribunal will punish individuals for the crime of aggression against Ukraine, namely those who gave orders to start and continue this war of aggression. These are top Russian political and military leaders,” Korynevych added.

He is not ruling out President Vladimir Putin being arrested and ending up the dock. “This is for the tribunal to decide. This person may actually be involved in committing the crime of aggression against Ukraine. And it is possible that he was the one giving the corresponding orders.”

Judges will independently determine the term of imprisonment – up to 30 years or life imprisonment.

“I’m sure that the very fact of indictment of the top Russian political-military leadership and the issuing of arrest warrants would be a big step forward. Those individuals would be locked up inside Russian jurisdiction. They would be non-handshakable in the international community, they wouldn’t be able to freely travel abroad. The SIT would name them international criminals in legal, not political, terms,” Korynevych told Kyiv Post.

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The SIT is a special court that is in the process of being formed, which will look into crimes of aggression committed by the Russian Federation against Ukraine.