Estonia Calls For the Creation of a Special Tribunal For Russia For the Ongoing Genocidal War Against Ukraine

Prime Minister of Estonia, Kaja Kallas, urged the establishment of a special tribunal to hold the Russian leadership accountable for initiating a genocidal war against Ukraine. 

Kallas made this statement during her speech at the Marion Dönhoff Prize ceremony in Hamburg.

In her address, Kallas appealed to the member states of the Rome Statute, urging them to ensure the 'fulfillment of obligations under the Rome Statute' and focus on resisting the criminal aggression of the dictatorial Russian regime.

"The International Criminal Court does not have jurisdiction in that case now. That is why we need to establish an international tribunal for the crime of aggression – a tribunal that would have jurisdiction over those top leaders who have initiated the “Mother of All Crimes”.  And such a tribunal should have the widest international legitimacy. The case is very clear, there is a criminal and a victim and there is a smoking gun. It is as black and white as it gets," noted Ms. Kallas.

Additionally, the Estonian Prime Minister emphasized that Russia's 'genocidal war' against Ukraine 'opens wounds' about horrific crimes committed by the Soviet authorities. This includes the forced deportation of thousands of Estonians to remote parts of the Soviet Union, including women and young children.

"This makes it clear why accountability for Russia’s war crimes must be front and centre now – unless unpunished, it continues over and over again. As we all know, there was no Moscow tribunal established to offer justice to all these children who fell victims to Soviet Russia’s war crimes. Times have changed since then," stated Kallas.

It is worth noting that according to officially confirmed data from the Ukrainian side, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Russia has illegally deported around 20,000 children from Ukraine. Meanwhile, the actual number is significantly higher.

Recall that last month, the Humanitarian Research Laboratory of the Yale School published a report revealing evidence of collaboration between Belarus and Russia to implement systematic deportation of Ukrainian children.

According to researchers, at least 2,442 Ukrainian children aged 6 to 17 were illegally resettled to Belarus, and children were deported from 17 different cities in Ukraine.

In addition, it has recently been revealed that one of Putin's closest allies, Sergey Mironov, illegally adopted and changed the name of a child abducted by Russians from an orphanage in the city of Kherson, Ukraine.