Russian MPs propose to set up Ukraine war crimes tribunal

The members of the Russian ruling party, the United Russia, have proposed setting up a tribunal to focus on the war crimes committed in Ukraine, saying that hopes for the Hague tribunal are fading.
Addressing the plenary meeting on Tuesday, Russian political scientist Vyacheslav Nikonov, who heads the State Duma committee on education, expressed hope that Kiev’s war crimes will not remain unpunished.
"I believe we already need to create our own tribunal for war crimes," Nikonov said. "In the name of those children, the elderly and women, both Ukrainians and Russians, we will never forget and forgive," he said.
"Can there be any hope for those countries that are simultaneously the sponsors and masters of puppets of both the Hague tribunal and the regime of war criminals [in Kiev]?" he said.
The lawmaker reminded that the first anniversary is nearing of the Odessa tragedy that happened in May last year, in which 48 people died and over 200 others were injured.
He also mentioned a whole range of war crimes committed in Ukraine and cited the stories of people who were tortured.
"Every day hundreds of people disappear without leaving a trace across Ukraine because they are suspected of being disloyal, and this continues even now and they are being killed with no trial and no record, and they are being tortured," Nikonov said.
More than 6,000 people have died and another 15,345 have been wounded in eastern Ukraine since the start of Kiev’s military operation in April last year, according to a new report of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Monday.