New international tribunal needs to be created for Putin - Kurt Volker

Putin states that Russia is studying the weapons that the West provides to Ukraine and ensures that this will only prolong the war. In addition, he emphasizes that Russia will find something to answer. What answer could it be?

It's a great question because I think Russia has already thrown everything in this war that they can: conscripts, convicts, all military equipment, Iranian military equipment. I`m not sure what they have left to throw out, of course they are going to say things like that, trying to convince the West that we should have doubts that we shouldn't do things. In reality we should be giving everything that we can to Ukraine to help win this war as quickly as possible.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov stated that Russia refuses to negotiate with Ukraine within the framework of the peace formula proposed by the president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He will resort to intimidations saying that hand over the territory to Russia or the army will decide everything. How long will the Russian war against Ukraine last?

There are so many amusing things about Lavrov`s statement. The first is suggesting that the Russian army can solve things. The Russian army is on the ropes, they`re really having a hard time. The second is a bit of deja vu in his statements because it reminds me of my time serving as US special representative for Ukraine negotiations were Russia pretended that Ukraine didn`t exist and they pretended that they could only negotiate with the West, with the US, Ukraine is not a party to any talks, has no legitimacy or no agency, and that sort of what they are saying again with Lavrov`s statement. They want now to negotiate with Ukraine – the country they're attacking, but to negotiate with others and that's simply not going to happen.

Are any negotiations with Russia possible?

Perhaps, I don't see it right now. I think that the conditions Ukraine has set for negotiation are very reasonable. There has to be a basis of future security, energy and food security, there has to be a full withdrawal of Russian forces, accountability for war crimes. All of those sorts of things are reasonable expectations from Ukraine. Russia has no intention of agreeing with them now. In a year’s time the war has to continue, forces have to be defeated as we see that will increase pressure on Russia and lead to some real negotiations, but at this stage it is not possible.

At this stage, how could Russia react to the Patriot system?

I don't think that they really can. They`ve put in all forces and equipment into the field that they are able to right now. The only thing they can do to escalate will be nuclear weapons and biological weapons which they know will be self-defeating. It will make the territory they are trying to conquer uninhabitable and will draw the direct immediate response from  other countries. They are not going to be doing that it seems. Otherwise, with conventional aims they are not able to do much more. Moreover I don`t understand what objections anyone could have to patriot systems being provided to Ukraine. They are defense systems aimed at protecting civilian population and civilian infrastructure. By objecting Russia is almost claiming that they had the right to attack Ukraine, which, of course, is something everyone by any legal means of International Law, any sense of Justice would be objective.

Let's talk a bit about the president Putin. Are there any tools existing to bring Putin to justice and force him to end this brutal war?

Yes and no. The existing legal mechanisms in international law are not going to be sufficient to bring Putin and the Russian regime to justice and hold them accountable for war crimes. Because of the Russian veto at the United Nations it is going to be difficult to set up a new UN tribunal, the ICC is the organization to which Russia is not a party, not the US, the International Court of Justice is not appropriate for this. It needs a special tribunal established and has to be done without Russia because Russia is actually the perpetrator here. This is trading new ground in international law much more similar to what has been done with Nuremberg trials in order to create a new framework. It's very important what we are doing already, which is collect the data, collect the evidence interview people, take pictures, identify orders that were given, the chain of command put together all the legal cases that are necessary to be able to prove that war crimes were committed and prove the personal responsibility of Putin and other in Russian military leadership. That work goes now and will pay off later when some kind of new tribunal is established.

The last question. How long can Ukraine hold out in this difficult situation?

I don`t think there is any scenario where Ukraine does not hold out. Ukraine is a sovereign independent country, and its people are determined and resilient. They know they are Ukrainians. The idea that Ukraine disappears or gives up is inconceivable. What we need to do is just to make sure Ukraine is able to fight and to regain its territory as quickly as possible.