Kidnapping of Ukrainian children – this is how Putin should pay for it EU and Mercosur want to move forward: this has consequences for Switzerland

“Mom, come get me.” This is how Annalena Baerbock begins her speech to the UN Security Council in New York. In New York, the German foreign minister talks about the fate of one of the thousands of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia. The story of 15-year-old Artem ends well, he and his mother are reunited. Vladimir Putin’s war against the weakest is the subject of Baerbock’s third speech to the United Nations Security Council.

In the room with the characteristic semicircle and blue chairs, where, as she herself admits, not all countries view all aspects of Russia’s offensive war in Ukraine in the same way. “But what unites us is humanity,” Baerbock says at the end of a day designed to reinforce precisely this point: humanity that must be protected and defended. In contrast to the inhumanity of the Russian president in his war against Ukraine, which cannot go unpunished. That’s the hope, that’s the goal.

child abduction

For this, more than 500 days after the outbreak of war, strong images must be found, in which the suffering of the people of Ukraine and the crimes committed against them have crept into the normality of the world. Especially when the horror of a war has to be elevated to the objective level of the judiciary.

The kidnapping of the Ukrainian children is not only a powerful image for speeches, it is also a valid criminal element in the prosecution of possible international crimes committed by Putin in Ukraine. Because Putin himself talks about it – he calls it “evacuations”. Because the children like Artem who can be saved are witnesses to the crimes committed against them.

When the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant in March against Putin and Russian Children’s Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belowa for alleged war crimes in Ukraine, that was precisely the court’s argument: that they were responsible for the deportation of Ukrainian children and minors from occupied territories to Russia.

“The fact that the ICC based its arrest warrant against President Putin specifically on the deportation of Ukrainian children puts a spotlight on the weakest in the war,” Baerbock said a few hours before appearing before the Security Council in a room next door in the main UN building New York.

The room with wood paneling and light green chairs celebrates the 25th anniversary of the Statute of Rome, which forms the basis of the ICC. It was this court that invited children in its first trial in 2009 to testify as victims in an international trial, Baerbock said.

But the requests to speak, which follow one another in a monotonous way, remain as pale as the color of the chairs. Important, but difficult to convey. Baerbock is in the center of the round, in one of the back rows. She doesn’t get up when she speaks, her words have little power, even when the foreign minister tries to express her concerns through the children and German history.

The moral argument

That Putin will ever be in the dock is currently an unrealistic scenario. But not to try, says Baerbock, citing American Benjamin Ferencz, one of the chief prosecutors at the Nuremberg Trials after World War II, would be wrong. It is the moral argument for a court that has weaknesses. Not only Russia or China, but also India and the US have not recognized the ICC.

“Justice depends on what we as politicians, diplomats and lawyers do – or don’t do,” Baerbock said in another speech. The room is also provided with wooden panelling, this time the armchairs are brown. But therein lies the dilemma of this complex short trip.

The United States will also not ratify the ICC in the future, as that would make the country itself too vulnerable. China, Russia and others do not accept international jurisdiction for various other reasons. That weakens the setting. Ukraine has also not ratified the Rome Statute, Baerbock is targeting the country directly to join the ICC.

International law has limits to prosecution

And the further development of the dish that Baerbock is promoting on this day is not easy either. During a visit to the seat of the court in The Hague in January, the German Foreign Minister had already proposed changing the legal basis, so that the crime of aggressive war could also be prosecuted without restriction. It would suffice for the state victim of such an attack to fall within the jurisdiction of the Court. But there is currently no majority for such a reform.

But how do you hold Putin accountable? That is the simple question to which there is no simple answer. Because the world is not as united on Ukraine’s side as humanity would dictate, which, according to Baerbock, should unite all countries in the face of this war. And because international law should be worth all the effort, but when it comes to prosecution, it has very limits.

This is another reason why Baerbock supports the idea of ​​a special tribunal to hold Putin and others accountable for the offensive war against Ukraine. A tribunal based on Ukrainian law that may contain international elements, such as judges from different countries and a location abroad. Another proposal that the world needs to agree on first.

45 seconds…

At the evening Security Council meeting, all these political and diplomatic ambivalences are in the same room as the aggressor, Russia, and the victim, Ukraine. On the anniversary of the war in February, Baerbock spoke here of the horror of missile strikes at night. «45 seconds. 45 seconds to get your grandma to safety. 45 seconds to reach the basement. 45 seconds… that’s how long it takes for a Russian missile to hit the city of Kharkiv after the air raid siren sounds.”

So this Monday she talks about the suffering of Ukrainian children. She calls on Putin to stop kidnapping the children and – on the day Russia ends the grain deal – not to use a weapon against hunger. It is Baerbock’s most emotional and moral performance in New York, also because few others do what is the norm for the secretary of state: to get to politics through the story of an individual’s fate.

Baerbock gave three speeches that day, three attempts to change something on topics that cannot be flipped like a coin. “It would be irresponsible to just watch,” says Annalena Baerbock in a room. And in another, “We have a responsibility to try.”

Cluster munitions are not discussed

They are attempts to strengthen international law, although even the states that ratified the establishment of the ICC cannot agree on how to reform and strengthen the court.

Try to enforce international law that the US, Russia, China and many others refuse to recognize.

Attempts to hold Putin criminally responsible, however unrealistic that may be under the current circumstances. Attempts to expand the global alliance for Ukraine at all levels.

But also attempts to somehow justify morally sensitive decisions, such as the supply of cluster munitions to Ukraine.

An argument that the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Greens has visible difficulty with these days, but it must be made. And that’s probably why it won’t be discussed, to leave behind last week’s not uncontroversial message. And last but not least, it is an attempt not to let the crimes in Ukraine, this war and its international complexity become normal for the world. 508 days after the outbreak of war, Baerbock’s day in New York shows just how hard it is.

This article was first published on Zeit Online. Watson may have changed the headings and subheadings. Here’s the original.