Ensuring Fairness of War Crime Trials in Ukraine

Abstract

The war that Russia started against Ukraine in 2014 and escalated in February 2022 inevitably affected the operation of the Ukrainian judicial system. Ongoing hostilities, destruction and damaging of the court buildings, displacement of the population and the consequent lack of personnel, lack of electricity resulting from Russia’s attacks on the energy infrastructure interrupted work of the courts in Ukraine. With some interruptions and adjustments, the Ukrainian judicial system has nonetheless continued functioning during the war. Already in May 2022, a Ukrainian court convicted a Russian soldier of a war crime of killing a civilian committed just several months earlier in February 2022. While trials related to war crimes in Ukraine before February 2022 received little international attention, the judgment delivered in May 2022 and subsequent convictions of Russian soldiers prompted lively expert discussion on challenges of administration of wartime justice. Scholars point out the very large number of alleged war crimes, the ongoing war and concerns relating to independence of judges as factors that may undermine the fairness of war crime trials in Ukraine. This paper analyzes fair trial issues arising in connection with investigation and prosecution of war crimes in Ukraine and discusses ways of enhancing the fairness of the justice process.

Keywords: Fairness, fair trial, war crimes, accountability, transitional justice, Ukraine