EU intends to create two registers of Russia's crimes in Ukraine: economic and military

Leaders of 46 countries who gathered on Tuesday for a two-day summit of the Council of Europe intend to create a system that will make it possible to hold Russia accountable for war crimes and destruction in Ukraine. At the meeting in Reykjavik, the participants want to formulate the basic principles of two respective registers.

Source. This was reported by the Associated Press.

The main purpose of the Council of Europe summit, the main European human rights organization, will be to develop legislative and legal mechanisms by which Russia should be held accountable for the unleashing of the war of aggression and the consequences of its actions.

Europe hopes that the United States, which is attending the summit as an observer, will support this initiative.

One registry will include all cases of damage caused by Russia to Ukraine, so that in the future it will be possible to claim monetary compensation from Moscow.

As of February 2023, losses from the destruction of infrastructure alone were estimated at $143.8 billion.

In addition, by the end of 2022, at least 109 large and medium-sized enterprises suffered direct losses of $13 billion as a result of the invasion, according to estimates by the Kyiv School of Economics.

In addition, it is planned to keep records of war crimes – this is already being actively pursued by various organizations, from Ukrainian to the UN and the International Criminal Court in The Hague. This is necessary for the tribunal, which will be discussed at the summit.

"I will strongly support the creation of a special tribunal to bring Russia to justice for the crime of aggression," said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Background. As a reminder, in February, it was announced that an international center would be established in The Hague to coordinate the collection of evidence for the purpose of prosecuting Russia for the crime of aggression.