Hansard

I thank Jenni Minto for bringing the debate to the chamber and for her passionate speech, which reminds us that the issue is about the people of Ukraine and what they have experienced over the past year.

Collette Stevenson was right to talk about the “Postcards from Ukraine” event last night. It was incredibly moving to hear about the fact that more than 500 historical and archaeological sites have been bombed in an attempt to wipe out Ukrainian culture.

Last night’s “Panorama” documentary, which was incredibly moving, used individual war diaries to show how horrific and hellish the situation is for people.

In June last year, the United Nations Security Council convened a meeting 20 years on from the establishment of the International Criminal Court, which was funded to deliver the Rome statute and aimed to deliver international criminal justice and accountability. At that meeting, the UK noted that an ICC investigation was already under way, with the largest referral in history.

Prosecutorial powers are key. Ukrainian authorities, teams sent by Eurojust and several European countries, including France, have documented Russia’s crimes, but we need to make sure that action is taken following that evidence gathering. It not enough just to gather evidence. If we look at Syria, for example, the United Nations General Assembly had an international, impartial and independent mechanism that documents crimes committed by the Assad regime and ISIS. Without prosecutorial powers, however, we cannot bring people to justice. We need to hold Russia and its allies accountable for the atrocities that are being committed by Russia’s political and military leadership.

It was important that, last week, members of the European Parliament urged the European Union, in close co-operation with Ukraine and the international community, to push for the creation of a special international tribunal to prosecute Putin, his military leadership and his allies. The European Parliament emphasised that the EU’s preparatory work should begin immediately, and when the process begins, we must ensure that the UK is present, supporting our European and Ukrainian counterparts throughout the process, and using our knowledge and resources to ensure that war crimes do not go unpunished.

In an attempt to reverse the current trend and restore credibility to the founding principles of the United Nations charter, the establishment of an ad hoc special tribunal would send a clear message to Russia and the world that use of force is prohibited in international relations between states. We should not just condemn it; we must make sure that international perpetrators of violence, war crimes and possible crimes against humanity are brought to justice.

Gordon Brown wrote

“It is high time that the world took the fight to Putin and his enablers.

The UK and US must act quickly both for Ukraine's sake and to honour the legacy of the Nuremberg trials when the free world stood its ground and ensured war criminals were held accountable.”

Those are words to stand by. If we do not get it right this time, the world will face the risk of history being repeated. It is important that we acknowledge that the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Andriy Kostin, has said that his office has 65,000 registered incidents of war crimes. We need a legal mechanism. We need action, and we need justice because of the act of aggression that began when Russian forces invaded Ukraine last year.

We know that our world leaders, European leaders and the German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock has asked for the establishment of a special tribunal, and it is important that we debate that issue in our Parliament today. It is right that the UK has accepted Ukraine’s invitation to join the coalition, because that will bring legal expertise from right across the UK to the table and ensure that Russia’s leaders are held accountable for their actions.

As Jenni Minto’s motion says,

“a Ukrainian victory is necessary for the integrity of the international system, as are … justice and accountability for Russian crimes, and … accountability for the crime of aggression against Ukraine must be secured.”

We need to stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine, stand up for democracy, deliver justice, do the work that Alexander Burnett talked about and support people in our homes and communities across Scotland, but there also needs to be accountability for those who have led the aggression against Ukraine and its people, and that is why we need to be unanimous in supporting the motion tonight.