Nebenzia: West's Ukraine Tribunal Idea 'Ridiculous' & Not Worth Commenting On

UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) - Moscow finds the idea of a tribunal to investigate Russia for its alleged aggression against Ukraine ridiculous and a waste of time, the Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzia told journalists.

Earlier, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said the US will look at Iran's role in the conflict in Ukraine as it continues to document alleged war crimes. Price stressed the United States has not made formal determination when it comes to foreign actors.

"They gush with various ridiculous ideas that I don’t have time to comment on," Nebenzia said on Monday.

There have been several attempts and statements of Western countries calling for an establishment of a special tribunal against Russia. Last year in October, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania asked the EU for support to establish such a tribunal. Later, the idea gained favor from other countries and now has been floating in the air.

For example, on January 6, the Labour leader Keir Starmer, the former Nato secretary general George Robertson, the former foreign secretary David Owen, and former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith put out a joint statement saying the tribunal should be set up to look into the "manifestly illegal war" on the same principles as the groundwork for the Nuremberg war crimes trials of Nazi leaders.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in December the total silence of the Western media about the war crimes of the Ukrainian military is the height of cynicism. Shoigu added that the Russian Defense Ministry receives daily data on executions of Ukrainian servicemen who refuse to perform combat missions.

Russian officials have repeatedly rejected any allegations of committing war crimes, stating that rather the military actions of the Ukrainian army in relation to the citizens of the republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, recently incorporated into Russia, should be investigated.