The prosecutor general of Ukraine said that the judiciary had identified "a few thousand" war crimes cases in Donbass. This was in response to Russian forces' advance in the eastern region. Their strategic priority.
"We have identified several thousand cases from what we see in Donbass," said Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova at a press conference held in The Hague (Netherlands), where she met with many international counterparts.
These could include suspicions of people being transferred to other parts of Russia, including children and adults. She added that torture can also include killing civilians or destroying civilian infrastructure.
The Ukrainian authorities are not allowed to enter areas of Donbass that are under Russian control. However, they are interrogating evacuees as well as prisoners of war.
She added that Ukraine has identified over 15,000 cases of alleged crimes against humanity in the country since the Russian invasion.
The Ukrainian judiciary identified 600 suspects in the crime of aggression. These included "senior military officers, politicians, and propaganda operatives from the Russian Federation" and almost 80 suspects in alleged war crimes on ground. She also spoke in Ukrainian. She added that the crime of aggression or crime against peace was defined in 2010 by the Rome Statute as "the planning and preparation of initiation or execution by someone in a position to control or direct the military or political action of a State", an act of aggression that by its nature, gravity, and scale constitutes a violation of the Charter of the United Nations.
A Ukrainian court sentenced two Russian soldiers to 11.5 years imprisonment on Tuesday for bombing civilian areas. Another was sent to prison for the murder of an innocent civilian earlier in the month.
Judicial authorities in Estonia, Latvia, and Slovakia now belong to the European Joint Investigation Team. This team was established in March by Lithuania and Poland with the support of Eurojust and was joined by the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in April.
Karim Khan, ICC prosecutor, stated at the press conference that "Today is a momentous occasion as (the team has) three new members."
He said that the ICC hopes to open a Kyiv field office in the next weeks in order to provide a permanent base for its investigations in Ukraine. Briton, who sent this month the largest ever team of investigators to Ukraine to investigate allegations against the country's crimes in its 20-year history, said that "we can't go and come." humanity and alleged war crime.
According to the Ukrainian prosecutor, she hoped that her country would handle 95% of the cases. However, the ICC could take on larger or more complex cases.
