Could Putin be held to account for war crimes in Ukraine?

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News has recently broken that Ukraine is preparing war crimes charges against Russian military personnel, gathering a huge collection of evidence of atrocities committed against the Ukrainian people. But how feasible or likely is it that participants in the war could end up in the docks in Ukraine or the International Criminal Court in The Hague?

There is a record of war crimes being committed in real time, thanks to the unprecedented media coverage of Russia’s invasion, the ubiquity of mobile phones with the capability to take high quality photos and videos, and the tireless work of the Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office. But Russia hasn't signed up to the ICC - the independent judicial institution empowered to investigate and prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity - which limits the options available to hold the perpetrators to account.

Dr. Jennifer Cassidy is a Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Oxford, author, diplomatic consultant and international development expert, with personal experience of the prosecution of war crimes from her time working on the Khmer Rouge tribunals in Cambodia. Her Garden talk on digital diplomacy is one of our all-time most popular, with members telling us Jennifer helped make the complex world of international relations and diplomacy feel accessible and intelligible.

Jennifer is back in The Garden to help us explore the differentiation between an atrocity that occurs because of war and a war crime, the mechanics of how war crimes are prosecuted, and what options Ukraine and the world have open to them to hold Russian politicians and military personnel accountable for their actions during the invasions of Bucha, Mariupol and the rest of Ukraine.