If amendments to the Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes, developed by the Cabinet of Ministers and already registered with the Verkhovna Rada, are adopted, it will become much more difficult to hold Russian army commanders accountable. This was stated by an expert on international criminal law, candidate of legal sciences, Deputy Prosecutor General of Ukraine in 2019-2021, Prosecutor of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea (2016-2019) Gunduz Mammadov.

According to the lawyer, we are talking about bill No. 7290 on changes in the criminal and criminal procedural legislation of Ukraine in terms of international crimes.

" In fact, the bill puts military commanders outside the reach of justice, since it excludes their responsibility for the actions of subordinates and creates a separate offense that is not related to the actions of subordinates.. In practice, this will make it difficult to hold Russian commanders accountable,"

On the other hand, Mammadov draws attention to the fact that the bill proposes to lay responsibility on ordinary soldiers for crimes that, according to international law, are the responsibility of the military elite.. He stresses the need to rethink the wording of the "

" The crime of aggression is a crime of the military-political elite of the Russian Federation,"

At the same time, the draft law lacks provisions on universal jurisdiction, which makes it impossible to prosecute foreigners who have committed international crimes..

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Mammadov also refers to the opinion of his colleague - director of the Ukrainian Legal Advisory Group Nadezhda Volkova, who notes that in practice the bill does not provide effective tools for the implementation of effective justice.

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In addition, Volkova draws attention to the fact that, despite the ninth year of the war on the territory of Ukraine, discussions are still ongoing at the legislative level regarding changes to the Criminal Code of Ukraine regarding the most serious international crimes..

On May 20, 2021, the Verkhovna Rada generally adopted the Law of Ukraine "

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Earlier, former Deputy Prosecutor General Gunduz Mammadov reported that Ukrainian law enforcement officers are investigating more than 30 thousand criminal offenses in more than five thousand proceedings - these are all crimes related to the armed conflict. According to him, almost nine and a half thousand people are involved in them..

Of these, hundreds of Russian citizens, including the highest political and military leadership of the aggressor country.

How to punish the aggressor country? Who will judge the top leadership of the Russian Federation for violation of international humanitarian and criminal law? Will those who took the side of the aggressor and occupier be punished What Ukraine is doing to make punishment inevitable? Read in the interview that Tatyana Silina took with the Deputy Prosecutor General of Ukraine Gunduz Mammadov.