Vladimir Putin's Russia is not only facing a grand military coalition of Ukraine's allies. The Kremlin faces a solid political alliance and a broad legal consensus among countries that want to hold it accountable for the dramatic human and material consequences of the invasion unleashed on February 24, 2022.
The leaders of the 46 member states of the Council of Europe have met in Reikiavic (Iceland) to launch a "damage registry" of the war in Ukraine, a database that can be used for an eventual compensation mechanism for the victims and victims, and also with a view to a future trial of Putin and other Russian officials if an ad hoc court is created. .
At the moment, 43 countries have announced their agreement to carry out this registry on Wednesday. That number includes observer members such as Canada, Japan and the United States, as well as the European Union. So far, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia-Herzogovina, Turkey, Hungary and Serbia have not joined.
The Council of Europe (not to be confused with the European Council, an EU body) is an intergovernmental organization founded in 1949 under the impact of World War II and the tragedy caused by fascism. Therefore, it predates the European Coal and Steel Community, the embryo of the current EU. The mission of the Council of Europe, based in Strasbourg, is the defense and promotion of human rights and fundamental freedoms, democracy and the rule of law. The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) depends on it, a body of increasing relevance to which thousands of appeals from citizens who consider their rights violated and who have exhausted the claim channels in national courts arrive every year.
Russia has been a member of the Council of Europe since 1996 but was expelled last year. After the annexation of Crimea, it was already suspended from voting. It so happens that two other ex-Soviet states that are part of the organization, Azerbaijan and Armenia, are at war.
In 75 years of existence there have only been four summits of heads of state and government of the Council of Europe. The Icelandic capital was attended by the French president, Emmanuel Macron; British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak; German Chancellor Olaf Scholz; and the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni. They are the four leaders who received the Ukrainian president, Volodímir Zelenski, on his recent European tour. The latter returned to Kyiv and is not in Iceland, although he intervened by videoconference and recalled the massive missile attack launched by Russia yesterday and reiterated his demand for fighter jets.
The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, have flown to Reikiavic. Pedro Sánchez, absent, will be represented by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares.
The future Ukrainian war damage registry, which will be based in The Hague, must collect information and evidence, classify it, value it and decide whether claims are substantiated. It is significant that this record will be born two months after the announcement of the arrest warrant against Putin issued by the International Criminal Court.
Icelandic Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdóttir opened the summit by immediately speaking about Ukraine. “We are not gathered here in celebration but under the shadow of war,” she said solemnly. The Russian aggression against Ukraine is the most serious attack on European peace and security since World War II. Jakobsdóttir mentioned “the killings, rapes and murders of civilians” committed by the invaders, she expressed “tremendous respect for Ukraine's will to resist” and promised that they will continue to support her.
In his speech, Macron referred to the forced transfer to Russia of Ukrainian children and demanded that Moscow immediately return them to their families.
Capitalizing on their presence in Reykjavic, Sunak and his Dutch counterpart, Mark Rutte, agreed to jointly push for an international coalition to provide Ukraine with "combat air capabilities" including the delivery of US F-16 fighter-bombers, a Downing Street statement said.
