UWC President at the United Nations calls on General Assembly to create a Special Tribunal on Russian War Crimes

Ladies and gentlemen,

Thank you for your participation in today’s symposium at the United Nations on human rights violations perpetrated by Russia on Ukrainians.  Frankly, I believe this symposium should more aptly be called Russia’s genocidal war on the Ukrainian people.  

In particular, I want to thank and honour the brave women and men from Ukraine who joined us here at the United Nations today for courageously telling their horrifying personal stories of physical and psychological torture, sexual violence, depravation, mass deportation and indoctrination of children, and other disgusting crimes that were perpetrated against them while under Russian occupation or captivity.  Moreover, these repulsive acts were far from isolated incidents.  These violations, tortures and killings continue to be done systemically to all Ukrainians under Russian occupation and captivity.  Ladies and gentlemen, we are witnessing a genocide in real-time.  

We cannot standby as the world did 90 years ago when Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and his enablers starved the Ukrainian nation to death through the Holodomor and then repopulated the Ukraine with ethnic Russians.  

Today we must give Ukraine the weapons it needs to win the war.  But as stated by President Zelensky, “We must win both battles.  The fight for our territory and the fight for justice”.  For justice to be brought and for Russia to change, the United Nations must immediately establish an International Russian War Crimes Tribunal that will bring to trial and condemn the crimes of the Russian leadership who like the Nazi regime have indoctrinated their people to believe they are serving the interests of Mother Russia by killing and torturing Ukrainians.  The Russian elite deny the very existence of a Ukrainian nation and seek to destroy it.

Until the Russian people see that the world has put them and their leadership on trial, they will continue to believe in the lies being propagated by Moscow.  A UN War Crimes Tribunal, akin to the Nuremburg Trials after WW2, is vital to bring the Russian political, military, and economic leadership to justice, as well as those organizations and individuals both within and outside Russia that have enabled this war of aggression and genocide.  Without such a tribunal there will be a massive accountability gap, where the ordinary soldiers are punished for the acts they committed, while top leaders such as Putin continue to wage war with impunity.  It is key that the international community focus on the crime of aggression which is the plotting and waging of an aggressive war.  That is the supreme international crime because it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole – it is the mother of all crimes from which most other international crimes – war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide – flow.

The purpose of this UN War Crimes Tribunal is not only to convict the individual war criminals but also to assemble irrefutable evidence of Russian crimes – offering a valuable and credible history lesson to the Russian people, and to delegitimize the current Ruskiy Mir – Russian Worldview that is propagated by the Kremlin.  That delegitimization will be essential to change Russia to become a humane state that respects international law, its neighbours and its own citizens.  Without a comprehensive International War Crimes Tribunal, Russia will continue to be belligerent and a threat to its neighbours as well as to global peace and security, even after they are defeated by the Ukrainians.

That is why, the Ukrainian World Congress that represents the interests of over 20M Ukrainians organized in over 65 countries around the world, is calling upon every member of the United Nations to do the right thing and not standby as evil is being perpetrated against the Ukrainian people.  On this one year anniversary of Russia’s unprovoked full-scale brutal invasion of Ukraine and nine-year anniversary since the beginning of Russia’s war on Ukraine – we call upon the United Nations General Assembly who is gathering tomorrow to vote to establish an International War Crimes Tribunal to bring the Russian leadership and their enablers to justice.  

Thank you and Slava Ukraini!