Ukraine ratifies the statute for joining the International Criminal Court

Ukraine has ratified the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court Wednesday, opening the possibility of more prosecutions of Russian officials for war crimes

Ukraine International Court (Ukrainian Parliament Press Office)

Ukraine ratified the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, taking a step toward membership and opening the possibility of more prosecutions of Russian officials for war crimes.

Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, voted Wednesday to ratify the ICC statute.

Membership of the ICC is a requirement for joining the European Union, which Ukraine hopes to do. It was formally accepted as a candidate in June 2022, four months after Russia began its full-scale invasion.

The document was initially signed by the Ukrainian government in 2000, but the Constitutional Court blocked ratification in 2001 and declaring it unconstitutional to authorize the ICC to rule on Ukraine's actions.

The question of ICC membership resurfaced in 2014, after Russia illegally annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine and occupied parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

However, many Ukrainians feared that ratification of the Rome Statute could allow the ICC to prosecute Ukrainian citizens participating in the armed conflict on Ukrainian territory.

To reflect those concerns, the legislation contains a clause that says Ukraine will not recognize the ICC’s jurisdiction in cases where the crimes may have been committed by Ukrainian nationals.

In 2023 the ICC issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights, over allegations of war crimes involving the forced deportation of Ukrainian children. The following year, more warrants were issued for Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Army, Gen. Valery Gerasimov.