OPINION
The wheels of justice are in motion for Russia’s unlawful war against Ukraine
The Kola Peninsula bordering Norway is heavily involved in war crimes in Ukraine. The Special Tribunal for Russia’s Crime of Aggression against Ukraine is in the making, and Norway is among its supporters. But Norway could do more.
When it comes to accountability for atrocities committed in war, the wheels of justice turn slowly, but they do turn. This spring, accountabillity for Russia’s unlawful war against Ukraine came one significant step closer to reality. The EU and thirty-six states, including Norway, pledged to support and finance the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine.
What is a crime of aggression?
The crime of aggression essentially consists in planning and carrying out an unlawful use of military force against another state. Russia’s full-scale military invasion of Ukraine is a clear example of an unlawful use of force. Those among Russia’s political and military leadership who planned, ordered and executed these acts of unlawful use of force committed a crime of aggression.
The Nuremberg Tribunal, created some 80 years ago to prosecute crimes perpetrated by the Nazi regime, considered aggression “the supreme international crime” because “it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole”. Starting and waging a war is the supreme international crime because war inevitably leads to loss, suffering and destruction, and often entails other atrocities such as war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. This, sadly, is also the case for Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.
Documenting atrocities committed in the war
Atrocities committed during Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine are widely documented. The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, led by prominent Norwegian lawyer Erik Møse, found compelling evidence of numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Ukraine by Russia’s armed forces and other authorities.
Among the gravest of these crimes are wilful killings of civilians, widespread and systematic torture and inhuman treatment, rape and sexual violence, and enforced disappearances. Another grave example is the forcible deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children by Russian authorities to Russia or occupied territories of Ukraine. In what appears to be an official policy coordinated at the highest level of Russia’s leadership, Ukrainian children are forcefully separated from their families in Ukraine and put up for adoption with Russian families, while their parents, relatives and legal guardians in Ukraine remain in the dark about the children’s whereabouts. NGOs and investigative journalists have established that Murmansk region is among those facilitating such war crimes, and Murmansk Governor Andrei Chibis has been sanctioned by the EU since 2022 for his involvement in unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children.
It is exactly for this war crime that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and his Commissioner for Children’s Rights have been wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague since 2023.
Attacking Ukraine from the Kola Peninsula
In 2024, the ICC also issued arrest warrants against several Russian military leaders and commanders, among them former Minister of Defence Sergey Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov, for the war crimes of attacking civilian objects and causing excessive harm to civilians and civilian objects committed during strikes on Ukraine’s electricity infrastructure in the winter months of 2022 and 2023. Russia nonetheless continued and intensified its attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, and in 2026, Ukrainians lived through the harshest winter of the war so far.
The Murmansk region is key to the Russian attacks; bombers from the Olenya airbase have been targeting civilian infrastructure in Ukraine repeatedly and with deadly outcomes. Moreover, the military units of the Kola Peninsula were deployed to Ukraine already from the beginning of the full-scale invasion, contributing to the war crimes by the consistent targeting of civilians.
Justice will prevail – and Norway can help
Despite the ongoing war, and missile strikes and drone attacks, Ukrainian society continues to function. So does its criminal justice system which has been handling war crimes cases from the very start of the full-scale invasion. But investigating and prosecuting war crimes remains a challenging task for Ukraine’s legal system. So far, Ukrainian courts have reportedly delivered about 245 judgments in war crimes cases, while the number of episodes registered with the prosecuting authorities that may amount to war crimes exceeds 200 000.
Other countries can and do investigate and prosecute atrocity crimes committed in Ukraine based on the international law principle of universal jurisdiction. This principle means that any state may prosecute acts amounting to war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide regardless of where the acts are committed or the nationality of their perpetrator or victim. For example, in 2025, a Russian national was convicted in Finland for war crimes committed in Ukraine in 2014. Norway should similarly make use of universal jurisdiction to prosecute alleged alleged perpetrators of atrocity crimes if such persons seek refuge on its territory.
