Britain is backing plans for a Nuremberg-style trial of Vladimir Putin in the face of opposition from Donald Trump.
The UK will support proposals at the Council of Europe next month calling for Russians to be prosecuted for “crimes of aggression” during the invasion of Ukraine.
The idea would involve setting up a military tribunal, modelled on the Nazi trials after the Second World War, to prosecute Russian leaders and generals for war crimes.
Some lawyers, including Sir Keir Starmer’s long-time friend Philippe Sands, have suggested the ad hoc court should be established specifically to deal with crimes of aggression, which are defined by the United Nations as “invasion or attack by the armed forces of a state on the territory of another state, or any military occupation”.
Some Western countries, including the UK, have said that Russians should be tried on those grounds for the political decision to invade, not only for war crimes committed on Ukrainian soil once the war began.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague cannot examine the “crime of aggression”, and is not recognised by either Russia or the US.
The plan for a new court to examine crimes of aggression was first suggested in 2022. It was backed by the Ukrainian government and Joe Biden’s administration, which sent funding and American prosecutors to help set it up.
However, Donald Trump withdrew all US involvement in the plan after his inauguration in January, as part of his strategy to be more conciliatory towards Moscow.