INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL OFFENCES COMMITTED ON THE TERRITORY OF UKRAINE BY THE MILITARY OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION AND THE POSSIBILITY OF BRINGING CRIMINALS TO RESPONSIBILITY

Abstract

The article is devoted to a comprehensive study of international criminal offenses committed by members of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine in the context of the armed aggression that has been ongoing since 2014 and escalated into a full-scale invasion in February 2022. The research analyzes the legal nature and essence of the main categories of international crimes defined by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, including the crime of aggression, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Special attention is given to the examination of the normative and legal foundations of international criminal liability, the historical prerequisites for the formation of the system of international justice, as well as the development of contemporary practice of the International Criminal Court in cases related to the aggression against Ukraine. The article analyzes the key directions of international response to the crimes of the Russian Federation, in particular the activities of the ICC, Eurojust, the UN Human Rights Council, joint investigation teams (JIT), and the national prosecution authorities of European states applying the principle of universal jurisdiction. Consideration is given to the precedent arrest warrants issued by the ICC against V. Putin, M. Lvova-Belova, S. Shoigu, V. Gerasimov and other individuals involved in the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children and large-scale attacks on critical energy infrastructure. The article highlights the current challenges of proving international crimes, including documenting torture, sexual violence, and mass killings of civilians, as well as the difficulties associated with immunities of high-ranking officials of the aggressor state and the conflict between norms of international and national law. The necessity of improving the national criminal procedure in accordance with ICC standards and the case law of the ECtHR is substantiated, along with strengthening cooperation between Ukrainian and international judicial institutions and creating an effective mechanism for the exchange of digital evidence (OSINT, satellite imagery, open-source data). Based on the results of the study, promising directions for enhancing the effectiveness of the investigation of international crimes are identified, including the establishment of a special tribunal for the crime of aggression against Ukraine, development of an international reparations policy, unification of approaches to immunities of state officials, and the formation of a multi-level system ensuring the inevitability of punishment.