Ukrainian law enforcement officers cannot start the process of prosecuting the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, because he has functional immunity.
As reported by Ukrinform, Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova informed about this in an interview BBC Ukraine.
“Can we start the process of bringing him to justice in Ukraine? Unfortunately no. He has functional immunity (Ukrainian law enforcement officers cannot report suspicion to the president of another country). Therefore, we understand that we cannot do anything in Ukrainian courts while Vladimir Putin is the president of the country,” she said.
According to the Prosecutor General, the OGP understands that this is possible at the International Criminal Court, if its prosecutor decides that Putin is guilty.
In her opinion, all people in our country, in Ukraine, and many people outside its borders, in countries that are our partners and support us, understand that Putin is the main war criminal of the 21st century.
Answering the question of whether she assumes that one of the requirements for Ukraine to achieve peace could be the termination of war crimes investigations, Venediktova informed that she does not think that this is possible in principle.
“We all want peace. We all just want to stop sleeping in bomb shelters. But war crimes will still be investigated, we will still bring the culprits to justice,” Venediktova clarified.
She also expressed the opinion that if not only we, but also the whole world will treat the war in Ukraine the way it treated the war in Chechnya, the war in Georgia, and the seizure of Crimea and Donbas, it will never end.
“In the 21st century, such an aggressive, cruel war must stop, and the guilty must be punished in such a way that no one has the idea to repeat it,” Venediktova said.
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the start of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russian troops are shelling and destroying infrastructure facilities, carrying out massive shelling of residential areas of Ukrainian cities and villages using artillery, rocket launchers and ballistic missiles.
The USA, the European Union and other countries applied sanctions against the aggressor country.
On March 16, the UN International Court of Justice ordered the Russian Federation to immediately stop its invasion of Ukraine.
