Representatives of a group of nations working together to investigate war crimes in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine met in The Hague on Tuesday amid ongoing calls for those responsible for atrocities to be brought to justice.
The meeting at the European Union’s judicial co-operation agency, Eurojust, of members of a joint investigation team and International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Karim Khan took place as Russian forces continued to pound Ukrainian towns. Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine has been widely condemned as an illegal act of aggression.
Russian forces have been accused of killing civilians in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha and of repeated attacks on civilian infrastructure including hospitals and a theatre in the besieged city of Mariupol that was being used as a shelter by hundreds of civilians.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24th, the Associated Press and PBS series Frontline have verified 273 potential war crimes.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has denounced killings of civilians as “genocide” and “war crimes”, while US president Joe Biden has called Russian president Vladimir Putin “a war criminal” who should be brought to trial.
The joint investigation team that met in The Hague, made up of Ukraine, Lithuania and Poland, was established in late March, a few weeks after the ICC opened an investigation in Ukraine, after dozens of the court’s member states threw their weight behind an inquiry.
Mr Khan has visited Ukraine, including Bucha, and has a team of investigators in the country gathering evidence. Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova, was among those due to attend the meeting. Her office has already opened more than 8,000 criminal investigations related to the war and identified more than 500 suspects, including Russian ministers, military commanders and propagandists.
Russia staunchly denies its troops are responsible for atrocities. Its defence ministry said earlier this month that “not a single civilian has faced any violent action by the Russian military”.
Analysts warn that the process of meting out justice will be long and complex as investigators piece together forensic and other evidence and seek to establish who ordered or knew about atrocities and failed to act to prevent or punish them.
The meeting in The Hague is not the only place accountability is being sought. Prosecutors in Poland, Germany, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, France, Slovakia, Sweden, Norway and Switzerland have opened investigations of their own. And there have been growing calls to set up a special tribunal to try Russia for the crime of aggression in Ukraine.
The ICC cannot prosecute the crime of aggression because neither Russia nor Ukraine are members of the court.