Moscow reacts to Paris' plans on 'special tribunal for Russian crimes'

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The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday it was outraged by the announcement of the French Foreign Ministry of the creation of a "special tribunal" for "crimes by Russia."

On Wednesday, the French Foreign Ministry announced a partnership between Paris and European and Ukrainian partners to establish a special tribunal to investigate Russia's actions in Ukraine.

"We are outraged by the statement of the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs regarding the plans to create some kind of a 'special tribunal for the crimes of Russian aggression.' In addition to trying to involve the International Criminal Court, Western countries decided to promote the idea of creating another overtly politicized 'judicial' instance, which, in fact, has nothing to do with justice," the Russian Ministry said in a statement.

The statement further states that Paris has so far refused to acknowledge registered war crimes committed by the Ukrainians and deliberately ignores them. 

On August 4, Amnesty International published a statement in which it accused the Ukrainian military of going against international humanitarian law protocol of international armed conflict, due to their bases being located in civilian-dense areas and institutions like schools and hospitals.

Amnesty International Secretary General Agnès Callamard said in the statement, "We have documented a pattern of Ukrainian forces putting civilians at risk and violating the laws of war when they operate in populated areas."

Although Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky attacked the agency, accusing it of seeking to shift "the responsibility from the aggressor to the victim," Callamard told AFP in an email that Amnesty fully stands by the report subject to the "same rigorous standards" as all of Amnesty's publications.

To date, the most recent atrocious crime Ukrainian forces have committed was the execution of ten Russian prisoners of war that were shot in the head at point blank in November.

Earlier today, Ukrainian Presidential Advisor Mykhailo Podolyak announced that Ukraine, since the start of the war, has lost between 10,000 to 13,000 soldiers. 

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday said during a press conference that "more than 20,000 civilians and more than 100,000 Ukrainian military officers have been killed so far." Interestingly, the numbers were edited out from both the video and the statement later on in the day. 

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