The Prosecutor General of Ukraine Andriy Kostin noted on February 7, 2023, that the Prosecutor General’s Office, together with international partners are investigating crimes committed by Russian troops in Ukraine in three main areas: the crime of aggression, the crime of genocide, and war crimes.
Source: The Prosecutor General of Ukraine Andriy Kostin
“A week ago, we saw how Russia directed another missile attack against peaceful cities of Ukraine. There is no doubt that these deliberate attacks are part of terrorist tactics, the purpose of which is to intimidate the population in order to paralyze Ukraine,” the Prosecutor General noted.
Currently, the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine is investigating three main areas: the crime of aggression, the crime of genocide, and war crimes.
Andriy Kostin noted that the main evidence of the crime of aggression is the actions of Putin as the president of the Russian Federation and the commander-in-chief of its armed forces, who on February 24, 2022, gave the order for a military invasion of Ukraine, and continues his criminal acts.
“This is a crime of leadership, which entails other international crimes. So the main suspects in this crime are the political and military leaders of the Kremlin regime, who planned, prepared, organized, and carried out this act of aggression,” explained the Prosecutor General of Ukraine.
Another cruel dimension of this war is the Russian treatment of the Ukrainian civilian population in the occupied territories: murder, torture, and sexual violence. Burials discovered in many liberated cities confirm the massive nature of these crimes.
The third group of crimes, according to Andriy Kostin, concerns the denial of the very national identity of Ukrainians. Russian soldiers are trying to change the demographic situation in the temporarily occupied territories by forcibly deporting and moving the population, including children (as of today, about 16,000 such cases have been established).
The Prosecutor General cited terrible statistics: more than 66,000 cases of war crimes were registered: from indiscriminate shelling of the civilian population to the use of torture and sexual violence.
“Unfortunately, the scale of these crimes is truly devastating. The number of civilian deaths caused by Russian troops already exceeds 9,000, including more than 460 children. The number of civilians injured exceeds 12,000, 900 of them are children,” concluded Andriy Kostin.
