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The illegal invasion of Ukraine has resulted in huge international condemnation and a call for accountability for the brutal actions made by Vladimir Putin.

”Of all Ukraine’s partners, however, the European Union is best poised to ensure maximum possible accountability, and it can do so by backing a special war crimes chamber within the courts of Ukraine”, Honorary Chairman for Jarl Hjalmarson Foundation and former prime minister of Sweden, Carl Bildt states.

Some national authorities have worked many years to investigate the wave of crime cases by Russia from 2014–2022, but with lacking results. The EU is now observing this carefully.

”This month, the EU Commission proposed strengthening Eurojust’s mandate to include collection and preservation of evidence in Ukraine, and this initiative could form the nucleus for a future court’s prosecution office”, Bildt says.

As mentioned above, the possibilities to bring justice to the Ukrainian people are several, and thankfully, the support from EU is already massive.

The French presidential election on Sunday resulted in a victory for the incumbent president Emmanuel Macron. After the voting stations closed, Macron got 58,5% of the votes, making him the first French leader to be reelected in 20 years, whilst Marine Le Pen got 41,5 %, which is the far right’s best finish in a French presidential election.

Macron’s victory offers continuity for France and another five years of political stability for EU at a time when allies rely on Paris to take a leading role in confronting some of the world’s biggest challenges, especially the war in Ukraine. A Le Pen presidency would have fundamentally changed France’s relationship with the European Union and the West.

Last week in Skopje, the Regional Policy Forum discussed the subject ”The Fight Against Corruption: The Western Balkans in Focus”. The panel agreed on the importance of battling corruption of the Western Balkan countries. The Head of Unit DG NEAR for Thematic Support – Rule of Law, Governance and Security, Allan Jones explained that the EU is putting much more focus on raising the awareness of corruption in different sectors – whether education, customs, transport or energy. He also made the point that this requires political will which is essential for combating corruption.

But how then can the Euro-Atlantic partners help the Western Balkans in this battle?

The president of the Institute for Democracy Societas Civilis – Skopje, Marko Troshanovski answered that ”The immediate start of accession of North Macedonia and Albania is an imperative, but also a credible prospect of EU enlargement of the region, as well.” According to Troshanovski, a lot of evidence points out that countries perform better when being under political pressure.

He also believes that the European Commission and the European Council should include the region in the EU rule of law mechanism as soon as possible. 30 billion euros were made on disposal to the region on a 7 year period through the EU economic and investment plan, which, as he says, is a huge amount of money that will enter the region.

The national security adviser Jake Sullivan and senior Chinese foreign policy adviser Yang Jiechi met in Rome, with the Biden administration increasingly concerned that China is using the Ukraine war to advance Beijing’s long-term interest in its competition with the United States.

Sullivan was seeking clarity on Beijing’s posture and was warning the Chinese anew that assistance for Russia would be costly for them, mainly to help Russia avert sanctions imposed by the U.S. and Western allies.

“The national security adviser and our delegation raised very clearly our concerns about the PRC’s support to Russia in the wake of the invasion, and the implications that any such support would have for the PRC’s relationship not only with us, but for its relationships around the world,” the State Department spokesman Ned Price said, using the initials for the People’s Republic of China.

The Biden administration has launched a new campaign with the purpose to document potential war crimes committed by Russian forces who invaded Ukraine. 45 out of the 57 member states in the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) defied Russia and its ally Belarus by approving plans to dispatch a team of OSCE experts to document potential war crimes.

Since the Russian invasion began late last month, several documented instances of Russians targeting residential areas inside Ukraine has occurred, including schools and hospitals, with bombs, missiles and artillery. Russian forces have also been accused of using cluster munitions and thermobaric rockets, both forbidden under international arms treaty regimes.

In the wake of the full-scale war in Ukraine, a U.S official said that Russian leaders feel frustrated with the extended time of a long-planned invasion. Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov claimed on Saturday that his forces have killed around 3,000 Russian troops, destroyed 100 Russian tanks and shot down seven helicopters. He also added that Russians have killed just about 200 Ukrainian civilians, including three children. 

The outside world’s support for Ukraine is tremendous. On Friday night, The U.S President Joe Biden unlocked another 350 million dollar in military aid for Ukraine. On Saturday Belgium promised 2,000 machine guns and 3,800 tons of fuel. Latvia, Poland and Estonia are also pushing more weapons into Ukraine using Polish border crossings, as the skies above the country are full of missiles and Russian warplanes.