Ukraine urges UN to establish special tribunal for 'crimes of Russian aggression'

Olena Zelenska, wife of Ukrainian President, calls for justice in video call to special session

Olena Zelenska, wife of the Ukrainian President, addresses UN diplomats by video on February 22. AP

Olena Zelenska, the wife of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on Wednesday called on the UN to establish special tribunal for the “crimes of Russian aggression”.

“I'm calling on you to create a legal front of justice," Ms Zelenska told UN diplomats in a video address.

"It is needed to save the succeeding generations from this culture of war and reaffirm faith and fundamental rights of people."

She was speaking at a high-level event called Gross Human Rights Violations due to Russia’s Aggression against Ukraine.

“We have the right to live free not to be killed or tortured; the right not to be blown to pieces by a Russian missile,” she said.

Ms Zelenska shared photos of 16,000 Ukrainian children abducted and deported to Russia. Many have been sent to live with strangers throughout the country.

“From what we know they have been given to the Russian families and they're trying to erase their memory about their origin,” she said.

Ukrainian authorities have continuously accused Russia of child abductions during the war.

Russia, which has repeatedly denied its troops have committed any war crimes, said the alleged abductions were “voluntary evacuations” of children.

The US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, echoed Ms Zelenska's concerns and accused Russian forces of committing “crimes against humanity in Ukraine".

“This is not a determination we make lightly. But in this case, the evidence is overwhelming,” Ms Thomas-Greenfield said.

A recent study by the Yale School of Public Health estimates that at least 6,000 Ukrainian children, aged between four months and 17 years, are being held in “re-education” camps in Moscow-occupied Crimea and mainland Russia in the past year.

The report identified 43 centres involved in holding children from Ukraine since Russia’s February 24, 2022, invasion of Ukraine.

The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, established by the Human Rights Council in March of last year, and the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine have documented a wide range of atrocities and other abuses committed by Russian forces Ms Thomas-Greenfield said.

US President Joe Biden on Monday made an unannounced visit to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.

Mr Biden's stop was part of a European trip to coincide with the first anniversary on Friday of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

“The cost that Ukraine has had to pay is extraordinarily high,” he said. “Sacrifices have been far too great.”