President of the Supreme Court Stanislav Kravchenko held a meeting with representatives of the Franklin Center for International Rule of Law (FCIRL)

Responding to Russian war crimes and providing technical assistance to Ukraine’s legal system in the investigation and adjudication of the most serious international crimes committed by the Russian Federation. This was the focus of a meeting at the Supreme Court with representatives of the Franklin Center for International Rule of Law (FCIRL) – an American organisation whose activities are aimed at supporting and strengthening the rule of law, particularly in states undergoing transitional or post-conflict periods and confronting hostile authoritarian threats.

President of the Supreme Court Stanislav Kravchenko noted that the national judiciary first encountered the challenges of adjudicating war crimes in 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea and established the so-called "Donetsk People's Republic" (DPR) and "Luhansk People's Republic" (LPR) in eastern Ukraine. At that time, Ukrainian courts faced the question of how, under conditions of hybrid warfare and using legislation designed for peacetime, to handle cases related to armed aggression. With the onset of Russia’s full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022, Ukraine’s judicial system did not cease to function, and as early as 26 March 2022 the Criminal Cassation Court within the Supreme Court considered the first proceedings linked to the war.

Today the national judicial system has adapted to operating under constant security threats, paying particular attention to the consideration of war-crimes cases with a clear awareness of the need to comply with all international standards of justice. These include standards governing detention at the investigation stage and the extension of its duration, the conduct of searches, the collection of open-source evidence (OSINT) and electronic evidence. In order to develop stable judicial practice in the field of war crimes, the experience and support of international experts is valuable for Ukraine, the President of the Supreme Court emphasised.

President of the Criminal Cassation Court within the Supreme Court Oleksandr Marchuk observed that Ukrainian judges have already developed case law in the adjudication of war crimes and have undergone training in the norms of international humanitarian and international criminal law. At the same time, the role of the Supreme Court lies in continuing to inform the entire judicial community of Ukraine about international trends in the consideration of cases of this category.

Co-Director of the Franklin Center for International Rule of Law Eric Nils Larson and Senior Judicial Adviser of the Center Max William Matthews stressed that support for Ukraine’s judicial system would have a concrete practical, rather than a general theoretical, focus, oriented towards the conditions in which our state currently finds itself and towards national legislation. The Center’s representatives expressed readiness to share experience on the most complex issues in the adjudication of war crimes, such as:

• holding military commanders and civilian superiors of the aggressor state to account;
• standards of proof in cases of attacks on civilian objects, including strikes on energy infrastructure facilities;
• the legal characterisation of the operation of detention/filtration camps for civilians and the treatment of prisoners of war;
• the use of foreign mercenaries by the Russian side;
• the looting and confiscation of civilians’ immovable property as a violation of the norms of international law.

In addition, the parties discussed the need to analyse problematic aspects of the consideration of war-crimes cases under the special procedure in the absence of the accused (in absentia).

The meeting was also attended by the Head of the Supreme Court Administration, Rasim Babanly.