Kyiv’s EU allies endorse tribunal to try Russian leaders

Ukraine and Europe foreign Ministers attend a meeting in Lviv, Ukraine, on May 9, 2025. (AP)
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Updated 09 May 2025
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Kyiv’s EU allies endorse tribunal to try Russian leaders

  • “Russia’s aggression cannot go unpunished and therefore establishing this tribunal is extremely important,” EU top diplomat Kaja Kallas said
  • The new tribunal is not expected to be able to try Putin while he is in office

LVIV, Ukraine: Ukraine’s EU allies on Friday endorsed the creation of a tribunal to try Russia’s top leaders over the invasion, as Kyiv pushes for Vladimir Putin himself to be brought to justice.

EU foreign ministers were gathering in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv in a symbolic show of support on the same day Russia commemorates the end of World War II with a grand military parade in Moscow.

European efforts to create the tribunal appear to have sped up since US President Donald Trump returned to the White House, courting Putin in a bid to end the war and raising fears Moscow could escape justice for good.

“There is no space for impunity. Russia’s aggression cannot go unpunished and therefore establishing this tribunal is extremely important,” EU top diplomat Kaja Kallas said.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague has already issued arrest warrants for Putin and other Russian officials for the forced deportation of children and strikes on Ukraine’s energy targets.

But the ICC doesn’t have the jurisdiction to prosecute Russia for the more fundamental decision to launch the invasion in the first place.

However, the new tribunal is not expected to be able to try Putin while he is in office due to a principle of international law that gives immunity to presidents, prime ministers and foreign ministers.

“This tribunal is being set up to pass appropriate sentences in the future,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said in Lviv.

He added Kyiv wanted the “inevitable punishment for all,” including the “president of Russia, the prime minister of Russia and the foreign minister of Russia.”

Putin earlier on Friday had evoked Soviet victory over Nazi Germany to rally the country round his three-year offensive at a grand military parade in Moscow in front of key allies, including China’s Xi Jinping.

There are fears in Ukraine that Russian officials may escape justice, especially after Trump initiated a rapprochement with Putin in the hopes of ending the war.


Russian drone attack forces power cuts in Ukraine’s Kryvyi Rih, military says

Updated 14 January 2026
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Russian drone attack forces power cuts in Ukraine’s Kryvyi Rih, military says

  • Kyiv says the campaign has forced rolling outages and emergency cuts to cities across the country, as repair crews work under ​fire and Ukraine relies on air defenses and electricity imports to stabilize ⁠the grid

KYIV: Russian drones struck infrastructure in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih on Wednesday, forcing emergency power blackouts ​for more than 45,000 customers and disrupting heat supplies, military administration head Oleksandr Vilkul said.
“Please fill up on water and charge your devices, if you have the chance. It’s going to be difficult,” Vilkul said on the Telegram ‌messaging app.
Water ‌utility pumping stations ‌switched ⁠to ​generators ‌and water remained in the system, but there could be pressure problems.
The full scale of the attack was not immediately known. There was no comment from Russia about the strike.
Russia has repeatedly struck Ukraine’s ⁠power plants, substations and transmission lines with missiles and ‌drones, seeking to knock out ‍electricity and heating ‍and hinder industry during the nearly ‍four-year war.
Kyiv says the campaign has forced rolling outages and emergency cuts to cities across the country, as repair crews work under ​fire and Ukraine relies on air defenses and electricity imports to stabilize ⁠the grid.
Kryvyi Rih, a steel-and-mining hub in the Dnipropetrovsk region and President Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown, has been hit repeatedly, with strikes killing civilians and damaging homes and industry.
The city sits close enough to southern front lines to be within strike range, while its factories, logistics links and workforce make it economically important and ‌a key rear-area center supporting Ukraine’s war effort.