Kyiv pushes for tribunal for Russians – DW – 09/10/2023

Ukrainian air defense forces have downed over two dozen drones targeting the capital Kyiv overnight, authorities said.

“Drones entered the capital in groups and from different directions,” Sergiy Popko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, wrote on the messaging platform Telegram.

The exact number of drones, or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), destroyed would be announced by Ukraine’s air force, Popko added, estimating the number to be over two dozen.

Several blasts were heard across the Ukrainian capitalearly on Sunday, with Kyiv’s mayor announcing that air defense systems were engaged in repelling a Russian air attack.

“Drones are still heading towards Kyiv!” mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote on Telegram.

A Reuters news agency journalist reported hearing at least five blasts, whereas another from the French AFP news agency reported hearing ten.

Drone debris fell into the districts of Sviatoshynskyi, Shevchenkivskyi and Podil, the mayor said. He added that one person was injured, citing preliminary information.

Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory are mainly aimed at military targets, intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov said on Saturday.

“All [the targets] are enterprises of the military-industrial complex,” said Budanov. “This is the difference that distinguishes us from Russians.”

Speaking at a rare public appearance during a Kyiv meeting, Budanov vowed that “people do not suffer” due to Ukrainian attacks on Russia. Meanwhile, “enterprises burn, high-tech machines burn, there are explosions, there are very deep sabotage measures,” he said.

Russian authorities have, meanwhile, reported that some Ukrainian attacks caused civilian casualties.

Kyiv’s attacks on Russian territory were rare at the start of the war, but they have been intensifying recently.

Ukraine has condemned what it said is a lack of progress in creating a tribunal to prosecute Russian leaders, similar to the post-World War II Nuremberg tribunal, and transfer Russian assets to Kyiv.

“Unfortunately, we are in a kind of deadlock on both because we have divisions on the first issue and there is clearly a lack of will on the second issue,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.

He said the G7 group supported a hybrid tribunal which would be based on Ukrainian legislation. This would make trying Russian President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin or Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov possible, whereas they would be immune otherwise.

“It’s impossible to explain to Ukrainians that we could have a tribunal without Putin on the defendant’s bench,” Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin said.

Ukraine is also pushing for the transfer of Russian assets to Ukraine, to help with reconstructing the country. Kuleba cited a “lack of will” regarding the asset transfer.

Some 90% of Ukrainians surveyed by a polling institute believe that Kyiv can recapture all of the Ukrainian territory occupied by Russia, with only 6% believing it is not possible.

The survey, conducted for German newspaper Bild am Sonntag, also revealed that 83% of the respondents wanted another counteroffensive next year, should this year’s offensive fail to achieve sufficient success.

Only 30% of the respondents were open to direct negotiations with Russia, whereas 63% rejected them. 

rmt/sri (AFP, Reuters)