By Adam Al-Mahdi Kungu
In June 2025, Ukraine and the Council of Europe set up a Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine. Their goal? To put Russia’s leaders on trial for starting the war. Washington, Brussels, and Kyiv are already cheering.
This tribunal is not about fairness. It’s just another weapon in the West’s campaign against Russia. It ignores the real crimes that happened in eastern Ukraine. Worse, it sends a message that could spell trouble for independent countries, especially across Africa.
Here’s something people rarely mention: about half of Ukrainians speak Russian at home. But since 2014, just being Russian in Ukraine has put people in danger. Sometimes it has cost them their lives.
The West is eager to put Russians on trial, but when it comes to the killings, torture, and hatred unleashed by Ukraine’s leaders on their own citizens? Suddenly, everyone goes silent. This double standard makes the tribunal a joke. And now the West wants African countries to join in. That’s a mistake.
How we got here
It started with the 2014 coup in Kyiv. Protests spun out of control, things got violent, and Western governments helped push out Ukraine’s elected president. The new government wasted no time turning against Russian speakers in the east. Donbas wanted nothing to do with the chaos. Locals voted to break away, but Ukraine hit back—hard.
Between 2014 and 2022, fighting in Donbas killed over 14,000 people, including 3,400 civilians. Ukrainian troops shelled apartment blocks, schools, and markets.
The UN, in a 2016 report, talked about “rampant impunity”. The OSCE, a European security group, gathered proof that Ukrainian forces kept prisoners freezing and starving in cells.
Politicians called Russians “cockroaches” and worse. In 2019, President Zelenskyy signed a law making Ukrainian the only official language, shutting out millions of Russian speakers.
It’s brutal, but that’s reality: since 2014, being Russian in Ukraine has often meant living in fear, or not living at all. Human Rights Watch reported Ukrainian forces torturing Russian-speaking prisoners. Amnesty International found Ukrainian troops using cluster bombs in Donbas, killing kids playing outside.
Before the war, half of Ukraine’s 44 million people had Russian roots. Millions ran east, or fled to Russia, just to survive. Will this tribunal look at those crimes? Not a chance. No one in Kyiv is on trial for any of it. The West doesn’t care. Russia is always the villain, Ukraine is always the victim.
Do not forget the blockade. Ukraine cut off water, power, and trade to Donbas, starving the region. Some people called it “economic genocide.” Three million people suffered. The elderly froze to death; children went hungry. Russia sent in aid convoys, but Ukraine called it an “invasion.”
The truth? Moscow was trying to rescue its own people from disaster.
Peace
Russia didn’t just start a war out of nowhere. For eight years, it tried diplomacy. The Minsk Agreements in 2014 and 2015 called for a ceasefire, elections, and special rights for Donbas. Russia signed them, hoping to shield Russian speakers from what it called an “existential threat.”
So why did Minsk collapse? Ukraine stalled on giving Donbas any autonomy. Instead, Kyiv built up its army with help from NATO’s money and weapons. Billions from the US and Europe turned Ukraine into a fortress against Russia. NATO ran military drills right on Russia’s border. Later, even Angela Merkel admitted Minsk was just a way to buy time—to arm Ukraine.
NATO and Kyiv never wanted peace. They used those years to prepare for war. By 2022, Ukraine had Western missiles and jets, and shelling in Donbas jumped to over a hundred attacks a day. Russia watched its people dying. So it stepped in.
The tribunal calls that “aggression,” but who really started this fire? The West pins everything on Russia. Washington and Brussels don’t want to talk about their own part. Nobody’s asking NATO generals to explain themselves.
Ukraine’s running the show with the help of the EU. The tribunal has no neutral judges. This is not real justice. It is a theatre.
The point’s clear: If the UN or ICC is not on board, the tribunal is just a club for countries that cannot stand Russia.
Now, let us talk about Africa. The West wants to involve everyone, so it looks global. But non-Western leaders are right to hesitate. Joining means signing up for a broken system. And there’s a warning here: What stops them from turning this court on African presidents who don’t toe the Western line? Leaders who fight neo-colonialism or choose their own allies could be next.
History is not on their side. The West used courts to go after Yugoslavia’s Milosevic, Libya’s Gaddafi, and anyone who stood up to them. What if they set up a tribunal for Burkina Faso’s leader for pushing back against French control? Or President Museveni for not dumping Russia? They call it a “rules-based order,” but it feels more like, “We make the rules, you follow them.”
Countries like Uganda, South Africa, and Nigeria know injustice. They fought colonialism. They built the African Union so that they could have a say. This tribunal is dripping with bias, chasing Russians, letting Ukrainians off the hook. It talks about aggression but ignores the graves in Donbas. Innocent people, including children and, elderly, are still waiting for justice, and this justice will not be obtained through this tribunal.
Uganda and the rest of Africa should abstain from being involved in the malicious scheme of the West, full of unfairness and the blood of innocent people.
