How Sweden is working to hold Russia accountable for its crimes in Ukraine

Support for International Criminal Court investigations

With the support of Sweden and 42 other States, prosecutors at the International Criminal Court (ICC) were able to begin investigating violations under the Court’s jurisdiction in Ukraine as early as March 2022. These violations include war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. Sweden supports the ICC’s work through annual contributions and donated an additionally budgeted contribution of SEK 7 million to the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC. In addition, the Swedish Prosecution Authority has seconded prosecutors and the Swedish Police Authority has seconded investigators to the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC. 

Establishment of a Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine

The ICC’s investigations do not include the actual crime of aggression itself, i.e. the individual responsibility of those in leadership for a state’s use of violence against another sovereign state. In order to ensure total accountability, Sweden has therefore been appointed to a core group that has been working together with Ukraine to establish a tribunal with jurisdiction over the crime of aggression. In May 2025, a political agreement on the structure of the tribunal was reached. The Council of Europe is responsible for establishing the tribunal. In January 2026, the EU and the Council of Europe signed an agreement on funding a Special Tribunal Advance Team (STAT) to establish the tribunal. Further, a sufficient number of countries need to sign an agreement on the tribunal’s committee on public administration. 

An important decision adopted during Sweden’s Presidency of the Council of the EU was the establishment of the International Centre for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine (IPCA) at Eurojust, the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation.

Extensive cooperation to document and gather evidence

Ukrainian authorities are working hard to prosecute and investigate crimes that have been committed. They are being supported by the EU, the United Nations, civil society and individual states, amongst others. Sweden is contributing staff to the EU Advisory Mission (EUAM) Ukraine, which provides on-the-ground support to national authorities. Sweden has also helped to provide capacity-building, technical assistance – including digitalisation – and legal advice to Ukrainian authorities to facilitate the investigatory work and increase Ukraine's capability to investigate war crimes.

Together with other countries, Sweden backed the decision of the UN Human Rights Council in March 2022 to set up the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine to investigate suspected violations and abuses of human rights in connection with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Through Sida, Sweden also supports the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU), which monitors and reports violations and abuses of human rights, and supports investigating authorities in Ukraine.

As a participant country within the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Sweden pushed for the OSCE to send a mission of experts to Ukraine (by activating the Moscow Mechanism). The experts concluded that there are clear patterns of violations of international humanitarian law committed by Russian forces. Based on their reports, it may be possible for prosecuting authorities such as the ICC to hold perpetrators accountable. 

Preliminary investigation also under way in Sweden

Sweden has universal jurisdiction for serious international crimes. This means that certain acts can be examined by Swedish courts no matter where they were committed, even if the suspect is a foreign citizen. Since March 2022, the Swedish Prosecution Authority has been conducting a ‘structural preliminary investigation’ on serious war crimes in Ukraine. The aim is to gather evidence that may exist in Sweden, such as testimonies from Ukrainian refugees. The evidence can then be used in legal proceedings in Sweden, in courts of other states or in the ICC. Other EU Member States have also launched preliminary investigations. These are coordinated by Eurojust in collaboration with Ukraine and the ICC.

Russia’s accountability as a State

Ukraine is also pushing for Russia to be held accountable as a State. Sweden has submitted a declaration of intervention in the case brought by Ukraine against Russia on the interpretation of the Genocide Convention before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). In its decision of March 2022, the ICJ ordered Russia to immediately suspend its military operations in Ukraine. This decision is binding on Russia. 

Sweden has also intervened in the intergovernmental case of Ukraine and the Netherlands v. Russia before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). In that case, the ECHR has delivered a judgment that finds Russia guilty of flagrantly violating a number of the European Convention’s rights in an unprecedented manner. Furthermore, Russia’s indiscriminate attacks are considered to have violated international humanitarian law. 

Sweden voted in favour of the resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly in November 2022 on an international compensation mechanism for damages caused by Russia’s actions in violation of international law in and against Ukraine. In accordance with the resolution, a Register of Damage for Ukraine was established in 2023 within the institutional framework of the Council of Europe, which collects data on damages and losses caused by Russia’s aggression and other violations of international law against Ukraine since 24 February 2022. Natural and legal persons, as well as the Ukrainian State, can register claims and evidence. 

Sweden is one of the founding members of the Register of Damage for Ukraine. In December 2025, a Convention on the establishment of an International Claims Commission for Ukraine was adopted. The Convention has been signed by 35 states including Sweden and the EU, but has not yet entered into force. Following that, the idea is that a compensation fund will be established and that the different parts together will form an international compensation mechanism.

Within the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Sweden is actively helping to keep Russia’s crimes in Ukraine – and the repression in Russia and Belarus – high on the agenda. This is done every week at the OSCE Permanent Council meetings and, in 2025, throughout the Swedish Presidency of the OSCE’s Human Dimension Committee. In addition, Sweden is demanding and supporting political accountability for Russia by participating in activities related to the OSCE’s particular accountability instruments – the Moscow Mechanism and the Vienna Mechanism. The mechanisms allow OSCE participating States to raise questions relating to the human dimension situation in other OSCE participating States. All OSCE participating States have committed to responding to such questions. The Moscow Mechanism is an instrument to oversee the application of measures relating to the human dimension by tasking experts with investigating a specific question and creating a report with recommendations. Neither the Vienna Mechanism nor the Moscow Mechanism requires consensus decisions.