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Czechia Joins Agreement to Launch Special Tribunal for Russia’s Aggression
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Czechia has officially joined the expanded partial agreement necessary to establish a Special Tribunal focused on the crime of aggression during Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha shared the update on social media, noting that Czechia is the 23rd state to sign on to this specific initiative. Sybiha stated that he hopes other nations will "follow this example," according to Suspilne News on April 28.
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The agreement is scheduled for a vote by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on May 14-15 in Chișinău, Moldova. Sybiha emphasized the importance of this step toward accountability. He noted that "those who unleashed the war against our country and continue to wage it must know that justice for the crime of aggression against Ukraine is inevitable."
Grateful to the Czech Republic for notifying @coe of its willingness to join the Enlarged Partial Agreement required to launch the Special Tribunal.
— Andrii Sybiha 🇺🇦 (@andrii_sybiha) April 28, 2026
Czechia becomes the 23rd state to join this historic effort and we hope to see more responsible states to follow suit.
On May…
This development follows Greece’s decision to join the agreement on April 23, when it became the 22nd participating nation. Efforts to establish a legal framework for the tribunal have been developing since late 2022, when the NATO Parliamentary Assembly first recognized the Russian Federation as a terrorist state and supported a resolution for a special tribunal.
Since then, individual countries have been working to approve the measure at the national level.
In late 2023, the Ukrainian Parliament passed legislation regarding a Register of Damages to document the impact of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. This register allows citizens and the state to submit information about losses and helps create mechanisms for compensation. An office for this register opened in Kyiv in March 2024 to process claims, starting with housing destruction.
European Union leadership approved the launch of the Special Tribunal in May 2025. The tribunal will be located in The Hague. High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas has indicated that the first legal decisions from the tribunal are expected within 2026.
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By mid-2024, the coalition supporting the tribunal grew to more than 40 countries. In June 2025, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Council of Europe Secretary General Alain Berset signed the formal agreement to create the body. The final version of the tribunal's statute was subsequently published by the Council of Europe and ratified by the Ukrainian Parliament in July 2025.
On April 14, 2026, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha announced that Poland and Iceland had joined the agreement to establish a Special Tribunal for Russia’s crime of aggression.
Their participation was a decisive turning point, as it allowed the coalition to officially cross the legal threshold of 17 Council of Europe member states required to bring the matter to a vote.
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