The Kremlin may be planning a staged tribunal against Ukrainian leaders, modeled after the Nuremberg Trials, historian Alexander Korb told Ukrinform. 

However, a Russian tribunal could be aimed at branding Ukrainians as “Nazis” to retroactively justify Russia’s war.

According to Korb, such a show trial could lead to the imprisonment of Ukrainian politicians, journalists, and activists in Russia’s Gulags, much like the mass repressions already seen in occupied Crimea and Donbas.

Korb argues that Moscow’s repeated accusations of “Ukrainian Nazism” reveal a deeper strategy: to impose a “victor’s justice” by conquering all of Ukraine and silencing its prominent public figures. If Russia succeeds, mass arrests and repressions would likely follow in newly occupied territories.

He warns that Western leaders often underestimate the gravity of this threat, dismissing Kremlin rhetoric as routine disinformation.

“This isn’t just propaganda — it’s an existential threat. If Russia captures more Ukrainian land, these people will be in real danger,” he says.