Russia’s military and political leadership will definitely stand before the International Criminal Court (ICC) and answer for each crime committed. This will be the Nuremberg trials of the 21st century. This is the statement from the Ministry of International Affairs on Karim Khan’s ICC Prosecutor’s decision to open an official investigation into the situation in Ukraine.
“The events of the last days, in particular the unprovoked escalation of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, give grounds to believe that crimes within the jurisdiction of the ICC continue to be committed on the territory of Ukraine. Along with the situations in Crimea and Donbas, there are reasons to believe that the aggressor’s military is continuing to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity,” the statement says.
The agency noted that although Ukraine is not a party to the Rome Statute, our state has recognized its ad hoc jurisdiction on the basis of statements submitted earlier. "Yes, Ukraine has filed two applications with the International Criminal Court. The first concerned the events in Ukraine in the period from November 21, 2013, to February 22, 2014, and the second statement concerned the continuation of crimes committed in the period from February 20, 2014. The analysis of these two statements gave the Prosecutor's Office all the grounds to allege the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity,” the Ministry reported.
International Criminal Court Prosecutor, Karim Khan, initiated the investigation of Russia’s crimes against Ukraine. He qualifies the occupier’s actions as “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity.”
Earlier, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valeriy Zaluzhnyy, said that since the beginning of an open invasion, Russia had fired 113 operational and tactical surface-to-sea and naval-based Iskander and Calibr missiles at peaceful cities and villages of Ukraine.
“This is a bloody crime of Putin’s regime and it is a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and requires an investigation by the Hague tribunal,” he said.