DGermany and Ukraine have signed a work program on cooperation in the field of justice for the next two years. “We stand by Ukraine today and we will continue to do so in the future,” said Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann in Kyiv on Friday. The FDP politician has traveled to the Ukrainian capital for the first time since the Russian attack began more than eight months ago. There he met with his Ukrainian counterpart Denys Maljuska and human rights activists.
Germany also wants to help Ukraine “to meet the rule of law standards in the admission process to the European Union,” said Buschmann. The main issue here is the implementation of the necessary reforms for the EU accession desired by Kyiv. Another focus of the visit is the international prosecution of war crimes. Buschmann is convinced that the investigations into Russian war crimes are not only of great importance for Ukraine. “Freedom and security in the world will only have a future if the international community puts Russia in its place.”
More than 40,000 war crimes are investigated
Investigating and punishing war crimes is currently a major concern for Ukrainian civil society. Many organizations such as Truth Hounds or the Center for Civil Liberties, which will receive the Nobel Peace Prize in December, have been documenting human rights violations by Russia in Ukraine for more than eight years.
Initially dealing with cases in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, where war has been raging since 2014, the work has multiplied in recent months. The Ukrainian public prosecutor’s office is currently investigating 42,000 cases of alleged war crimes, says Tetiana Peschonchyk from the human rights organization “Zmina”. She is one of the co-founders of the “5:00 am” coalition, which now has 31 organizations investigating war crimes. In places like Bucha or Izyum, which was only recaptured by the Ukrainian army in September, they examine mass graves, photograph signs of torture and question witnesses. They are also trying to collect as much information as possible on war crimes from the Russian-held areas of Cherson, Zaporizhia, Donetsk and Luhansk.
Kyiv and the human rights organizations advocate a special tribunal to prosecute Russian crimes in Ukraine. The government wants such a tribunal to deal with the international crime of aggression. Germany, on the other hand, already has experience in prosecuting war crimes committed abroad. In January, the Koblenz Higher Regional Court sentenced the former head of interrogation at a Syrian secret service prison to life imprisonment. He is said to have been responsible for the torture of at least 4,000 people and the deaths of at least 27 prisoners.
The government in Kyiv is also seeking international support for two other projects. These are the establishment of a “damage register” and individual compensation from Russia for war damage suffered.
