Ukraine’s judiciary has identified “a few thousand” alleged war crimes cases in Donbass, its prosecutor general said on Tuesday, visiting The Hague, as Russian forces advance in the eastern region, their strategic priority. .
“We have identified a few thousand cases on what we see in Donbass,” Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova said at a press conference in the city of The Hague, Netherlands, where she met several international counterparts.
She clarified that these were in particular suspicions of transfers of people, adults but also possibly children, to different parts of the Russian Federation.
But it can also concern the torture of people, the killing of civilians and the destruction of civilian infrastructure, she added.
The Ukrainian authorities do not have access to the areas of Donbass under Russian control, but they question evacuees and prisoners of war, explained Ms. Venediktova during a press conference at the headquarters of the European judicial agency Eurojust.
In total, Ukraine has identified 15,000 cases of alleged war crimes across the country since the Russian invasion on February 24, she added.
Ukrainian judiciary also identified 600 suspects for ‘key’ crime of aggression, including ‘senior military officials, politicians and propaganda operatives of the Russian Federation’, and nearly 80 suspects for alleged war crimes on Ukrainian soil, she added.
Two Russian soldiers were sentenced to 11.5 years in prison by a Ukrainian court on Tuesday for bombing civilian areas, while another was jailed for life earlier this month for the murder of a civilian.
“Memorable day”
Judicial authorities from Estonia, Latvia and Slovakia have now joined the European Joint Investigation Team (JIT), set up in March by Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine with the support of Eurojust, and joined in April by the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
“Today is a momentous day because (the team) has three new members,” ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said at the press conference.
The ICC also hopes to open a field office in Kyiv in the coming weeks to have a more permanent base for its investigation in Ukraine, he added.
“We can’t come and go,” said the Briton, who this month sent the largest team of investigators ever deployed to Ukraine in the court’s 20-year history to investigate crimes against the nation. humanity and alleged war crimes.
Ukraine’s prosecutor said she hoped her country would handle “95%” of cases, but some larger or more difficult cases could be handled by the ICC.