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The Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine is an ad hoc international criminal tribunal aimed at prosecuting individuals responsible for the Russian invasion…
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Investigate this subjectThe Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine (STCAU, French: Tribunal spécial pour le crime d'agression contre l'Ukraine) is an ad hoc international criminal tribunal aimed at prosecuting individuals responsible for the Russian invasion of Ukraine under the legal concept of crimes of aggression, as a complement to the existing International Criminal Court investigation in Ukra…
The Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine (STCAU, French: Tribunal spécial pour le crime d'agression contre l'Ukraine) is an ad hoc international criminal tribunal aimed at prosecuting individuals responsible for the Russian invasion of Ukraine under the legal concept of crimes of aggression, as a complement to the existing International Criminal Court investigation in Ukraine.
An agreement between the Council of Europe and Ukraine to establish the tribunal was signed on 25 June 2025 in Strasbourg. The agreement sets out the conditions for establishing the tribunal and includes its statute in an annex. As of 26 March 2026, the tribunal had not yet been established.
In 2022 and 2023, several international bodies announced their support for establishing a tribunal for prosecuting the crime of aggression against Ukraine, including the Council of Europe, the European Commission, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly and the European Parliament.
In April 2022 the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) called for an ad hoc international criminal tribunal. In September 2022, the Council of Europe proposed to create a tribunal that would have a mandate to "investigate and prosecute the crime of aggression" committed by "the political and military leadership of the Russian Federation." Under the Council of Europe's proposal, the tribunal should be located in Strasbourg, "apply the definition of the crime of aggression" established in customary international law and "have the power to issue international arrest warrants and not be limited by State immunity or the immunity of heads of State and government and other State officials."
The government of Ukraine called for the establishment of such a tribunal.
In November 2022 the NATO Parliamentary Assembly designated the Russian Federation as a terrorist organization and called upon the international community to "take collective action towards the establishment of an international tribunal to prosecute the crime of aggression committed by Russia with its war against Ukraine." The European Commission said that the European Union (EU) would work to establish an ad hoc criminal tribunal to investigate and prosecute Russia's crime of aggression. In the same month the European Parliament also designated Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism, citing attacks against civilians, war crimes, and atrocities.
On 19 January 2023, the European Parliament called for the creation of an international tribunal to carry out investigations and prosecutions for Russian and Belarusian responsibility for the crime of aggression, complementary to the International Criminal Court investigation in Ukraine. The vote passed with 472 votes in favour, 19 against and 33 abstentions.
In late February 2023, Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba stated that a "core group" for creating the tribunal existed, including representation from Guatemala. In March 2025, the core group held its fourteenth and final meeting, finishing the technical preparation of drafts of three documents: a bilateral agreement between Ukraine and the Council of Europe (CoE) to establish the tribunal; the tribunal's statutes; and a management document. Hosting of the tribunal was likely to be in The Hague. It was expected that trials in absentia for prosecuting Russian leaders while they remained in office would be excluded. Planned formalisation of the agreements was scheduled for signing by Ukrainian authorities on 9 May 2025, to be followed by a vote by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
Following European Union (EU) supported negotiations in March 2023, and given that neither Ukraine nor Russia had at that time ratified the 2010 ICC Kampala Amendments to the Rome Statute that added the crime of aggression alongside war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide to ICC jurisdiction, the International Centre for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression (ICPA) was created in July 2023 by Eurojust to gather evidence and coordinate judicial actions related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a crime of aggression. The creation of the centre was seen as a first step towards creating a tribunal. Aims of the ICPA would include supporting exchange of evidence and coordination of investigative and prosecutorial strategies. An EU joint investigation team including Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Latvia, Estonian, Polish and Romanian representatives participated in establishing the ICPA.
The creation of the ICPA was the first institutional action to investigate a specific crime of aggression since World War II. The Kampala Amendments giving the ICC jurisdiction for crimes of aggression became effective in 2018, with an exception in Article 15bis (5) of the updated Statute that excludes jurisdiction when the crime is done on the territory of, or by nationals of, a state that is not an ICC member state. Ukraine was not a member state at the time of the full-scale invasion, having not yet ratified the Rome Statute, nor were Russia and Belarus. The ICC declared its willingness to support and cooperate with the ICPA.
On 9 May 2025, representatives of 35 states and the Council of Europe (CoE) met in Lviv and, with support from High Representative of the European Union Kaja Kallas and EU Commissioner Michael McGrath, agreed to proceed with creating the proposed tribunal, stating that legal instruments were technically complete. A followup meeting on 13–14 May in Luxembourg by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe was scheduled for further formal steps in creating the tribunal.
On 25 June 2025, the statute of the Special Tribunal was officially published as an annex to a formal legal agreement between the Council of Europe and Ukraine.
By early December 2025, according to Kateryna Rashevska of the Ukrainian NGO Regional Center for Human Rights, the EU had provided €10 million in funding for the tribunal, The Hague had been chosen as the location of the tribun
Source: Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine (CC BY-SA)
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