Does Putin have immunity from criminal liability before Ukrainian court?

Abstract

The question about criminal liability for waging this cruel war has been actualized since the be­ginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war in 2014, and especially since the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. It is commonly recognized that such acts are crimes according to international criminal law and that liability must come under international judiciary bodies. By the same token, Ukrainian national legislation also provides for liability for those acts. At the same time, there are attempts to prove the fact that Putin and other senior officials are not liable under Ukrainian criminal law since allegedly they have functional immunity and ordinary perpetrators of the aggression are not personally liable under Ukrainian law due to the so-called func­tional immunity. The publication aims to prove the wrongfulness of the statement that the abovementioned immunity status prevents criminal prosecution in Ukraine, as in the state against which the aggression was committed. The argu­ments of “immunity theory” supporters are analyzed and counter-arguments are presented that such immunity is not valid in Ukraine and does not prevent prosecution under Ukrainian law. It is concluded that, regarding the aggressive war in Ukraine, the functional immunity of senior officials of the Russian Federation does not have any moral, social or legal grounds and the individuals who allegedly have such immunities are criminally liable not only under international criminal law but also Ukrainian law as well.

Keywords

• criminal liability
• immunity
• head of state
• aggression