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Conference on Ukraine: Russia to pay for damages

2024-04-03 08:30:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

"According to estimates around $155 billion, that's how high the costs are for the damage caused to Ukraine's infrastructure up to January of this year." This is what Dutch Foreign Minister Hanke Bruins Slot said at the opening ceremony of the "Restoring Justice for Ukraine" conference on Tuesday (04.02) in The Hague. More than 200,000 buildings, nearly 4,000 schools and 400 hospitals have been destroyed.

According to the EU, Ukraine needs about 450 billion euros for reconstruction. More serious than the question of destruction weighed on the conference the question of how to bring Russia to legal responsibility. According to the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Andriy Kostin, a total of 125,000 cases of suspected war crimes have been registered. Among them are the crimes in Butsha two years ago. "I was in Butsha two days ago, a city that has become a symbol of Russian evil for the whole war. Everyone remembers what the streets of Butsha looked like after the Russian invaders left," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video message for the conference. Russia denies these war crimes and claims that there were stagings in Butsha.

Conference on Ukraine: Russia to pay for damages

At the Hague conference on Ukraine, more than 60 heads of state and government were represented, most of them from European countries, but also from the USA, Japan and Canada. They met with representatives of the Council of Europe, EU institutions, the International Court of Justice in The Hague and representatives of the justice system in Ukraine. The conference ended with a statement by 44 countries, in which it is demanded that Russia pay for the attack and face responsibility for the aggressive attack on Ukraine. "This is our common task, to end the era of Russian impunity", emphasized the Foreign Minister of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba.

Damage to houses can be registered now

The participants hailed as one of the results of the conference, that Ukrainian men and women can record damage to their homes through mobile phones. This is possible with an application that is currently being used by the country's authorities. Since last year, at a summit of the Council of Europe, the war damage registry was opened. According to the EC, it is expected that 300,000 to 600,000 claims will be filed. But it has not yet been clarified how the damages should be compensated. First, the mechanism for their compensation must be created. Compensation funds, according to international law, must come from Russia, Marian Kliuchkovskyi, head of the damage registry for Ukraine, told DW. How this will be done is still open.

According to Dutch Foreign Minister Bruins, there were political impulses at the conference, how such a compensation mechanism can be created. It is also discussed how the frozen assets of Russian assets, or at least the profits from them, can be used.

Conference on Ukraine: Russia to pay for damages

Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against a Country

Another open issue is the creation of a special tribunal for Ukraine, where the crime of military aggression against a country will be dealt with. All 44 participants of the conference in the final statement have emphasized that they are determined to work for the establishment of a special tribunal for the legal prosecution of Russia's aggression against Ukraine. Dideir Reynders, the EU commissioner for legal affairs, expressed optimism in a conversation with DW that such a special tribunal could be set up by the end of the year. But the road to get there is long. According to the Foreign Minister of Ukraine, Kuleba has different positions on the issue of how the immunity of the Russian political elite can be removed.

As of now, there are legal proceedings open in Ukraine, Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin said at the conference. 551 people suspected of war crimes have been identified. Of them, 373 have been accused, and 104 have been convicted by the Ukrainian courts - Even the International Court of The Hague has issued international arrest warrants for certain persons from Russia suspected of war crimes, one of them being the Russian President Vladimir Putin himself./ DW