As US President Donald Trump meets Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska today, human rights experts are warning Ukraine’s allies against using accountability for Russian war crimes as a bargaining chip in any political negotiations.
The international human rights foundation Global Rights Compliance (GRC), which works closely with Ukraine’s Office of the Prosecutor General to document and prosecute atrocities, told Kyiv Post that any concessions on justice would violate international law and undermine years of painstaking investigative work.
GRC’s Mobile Justice Teams, made up of leading Ukrainian and international lawyers, have been operating across Ukraine since the early months of the full-scale invasion. They assist prosecutors in gathering and rigorously analysing evidence — from documenting crime scenes to tracing the chain of command within Russia’s military.
In a comment to Kyiv Post, Maksym Vishchyk, a Kyiv-based Legal Advisor at GRC and lecturer in international law at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, said there is growing concern that during so-called peace negotiations, Russia could demand Ukraine halt or suspend its domestic prosecutions for international crimes.
He stressed that even beyond Ukraine’s political commitment to accountability, the country has a binding legal obligation to maintain justice processes regardless of Moscow’s “nonsensical whims.”
“International law unequivocally obliges Ukraine to prosecute genocide and war crimes, leaving Ukraine no choice whether to do so based on political grounds,” Vishchyk told Kyiv Post.
He added that any blanket amnesty for war crimes would constitute a blatant violation of international law. Such a move, he warned, would disregard the tremendous work already accomplished by Ukrainian justice actors in collecting evidence, establishing Russia’s chain of command, and documenting the crime base.
According to Vishchyk, abandoning these efforts “would fail the international law crash test” and turn any concessions into “fruits of a poisoned tree” for the future.
The warning comes amid speculation that the Alaska summit could address potential ceasefire terms or territorial compromises. Kyiv has repeatedly stated that justice for atrocities, including the prosecution of those responsible for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, is non-negotiable.
Global Rights Compliance, founded in 2013, is an international human rights foundation, specializing in international humanitarian law, international criminal law and business and human rights. Global Rights Compliance’s mission is to provide justice through the innovative application of international law.