The International Criminal Court investigates war crimes in Ukraine – POLITICO

The International Criminal Court will “immediately launch” an investigation into war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide in Ukraine, the court’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan has announced. in a statement Wednesday.

The move comes after 39 countries – including France, Italy, Poland, Canada and the UK – took the case to court. Khan said in his statement: “Our work on gathering evidence has begun.

Khan’s predecessor completed a preliminary examination in December 2020, conclude that there are “reasonable grounds” to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed since the early days of Ukraine’s 2014 revolution. But she cited “limited capacity”, “overused resources” and the COVID-19 pandemic as obstacles to conducting a formal investigation.

Khan said he was seeking “the cooperation and contributions of all States to address our need for additional resources” for the court’s work.

Human rights groups have been gathering evidence of what they say are obvious war crimes by Russian military forces since Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a full-scale invasion of Ukraine last week. “We are currently seeing attacks on civilian targets outside of the Donbas region,” said Marie Struthers, Regional Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia at Amnesty International. learned on Monday, the regional director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia at Amnesty International, referred to the eastern region of Ukraine where Russia-backed separatists have been fighting. government since 2014.