The Russian-Ukrainian Conflict and War Crimes

This book offers a multidisciplinary examination of the international crimes committed in the Russia-Ukraine War, and the challenges of their prosecution and documentation. As the largest international armed conflict in Europe since World War II, Russia's war against Ukraine has provoked strong reactions and questions about the post-1945 world order, the utility of the war, and the effectiveness of international criminal justice. Throughout the chapters in this volume, scholars and legal practitioners from Canada, Germany, Poland, Ukraine, the UK, and the United States present the results of interdisciplinary research, insights from the perspective of other post-communist states, and first-hand expertise from directly working on the documentation and prosecution of these crimes. This offers a broader picture of post-Cold War relations and sheds light on the roots and nature of the war and the importance of regional approaches. The chapters also present some possible responses to the crimes committed in the conflict, with a focus on a victims-centered approach to transitional justice. This volume will be of interest to scholars and students of international criminal and humanitarian law, security studies, peace and conflict studies, and Eastern European history.

Patrycja Grzebyk is Associate Professor at the University of Warsaw and a specialist in public international law. She is the author of Criminal Responsibility for the Crime of Aggression (2013) and Human and Non-Human Targets in Armed Conflicts (2022). Dominika Uczkiewicz is a lawyer, historian, and Assistant Professor at the Centre for Totalitarian Studies at the Pilecki Institute in Warsaw. Her recent publications include Polish and German Perspectives on Transitional Justice: World War Two and its Aftermath (2021; co-edited with Wolfgang Form).

Introduction: The Rocky Road to Justice: Efforts to Document and Prosecute Crimes in Ukraine from a Historical and Legal Perspective Part 1: The Soviet Legacy and Ruskii Mir 1. War Crimes in Russia's Invasion of Ukraine:The Soviet Legacy and the Wellsprings of Moscow's Disregard of International Humanitarian Law 2. Historical Soviet and Contemporary Russian Criminal Acts Against Ukrainians Under the UN Genocide Convention of 1948: A Comparative Analysis 3. The Crime of Genocide: Historical Aspects, Political Discussions and Memory Laws in Ukraine 4. In the Span of a Hybrid War: Engaging Post-Truth in Shadowing Russian War Crimes 5. A Nuremberg for Communism?: Unified Germany, International Law, and the Idea of a Tribunal for Stalinist/Soviet Crime 6. Putin's Youth and the TikTok War: Creating the Militarized Self in Russian Adolescents Part 2: Crimes in the Ukraine War and Their Documentation 7. Russia's War Crimes in Ukraine as a Tool of War 8. Digital Evidence in Investigations Concerning Russian Crimes in Ukraine 9. Ethical and Methodological Challenges of Documenting the War: Recording Testimonies of Ukrainian Witnesses After February 24, 2022 10. The Center for Civil Liberties: Chronicler of Crimes Committed After Russia's Invasion of Ukraine 11. Witnesses to the War: The Raphael Lemkin Center for Documenting Russian Crimes in Ukraine as a Case Study 12. Precedents for Ukraine: Experiences of the UNWCC of Documenting War Crimes Part 3: Prosecution of Crimes Committed in the War in Ukraine 13. Ensuring Fairness of War Crimes Trials in Ukraine 14. Prosecuting International Crimes in Ukraine: The Role of Ukrainian Domestic Courts 15. Polish Involvement in Prosecuting International Crimes Committed in Ukraine 16. Prosecuting War Crimes in Ukraine: The German Contribution 17. The Ukrainian Struggle for Internationalization of the Problem of Punishment of the Crime of Aggression 18. Accountability for Russian Imperialism in the Global East: The Special Tribunal for Aggression from a Post-Colonial Eastern European Perspective 19. Ukraine and the Investigation of Systemic War Crimes: Learning from the UK's Investigative Failures in the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars