ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan arrives in Kyiv to personally inspect Russian war crimes investigation

The press service of the President's Office reported this. 

“During a meeting with the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, I said that the heinous crimes committed by the Russian forces on Ukraine's territory should not go unpunished. The perpetrators must be brought to justice. It is important for us to hear signals of support and the importance of justice. This means that we are not alone in our desire to achieve justice for Ukraine and together we can bring justice to Europe and the world. So that such horrific crimes cannot happen again in the future, even theoretically,” the statement says. 

In his evening address, Zelenskyy expressed special gratitude to Prosecutor Khan and expressed confidence in the successful work of the ICC: “This is an institution and a person who will undoubtedly play a historic role in bringing Russian criminals to justice. Russia's genocidal policy against our people will inevitably have inevitable legal consequences for all those who conceived, approved and implemented such a policy. And I want to emphasize: it is not only about the perpetrators, but also about the top political and military leadership of the terrorist state.”

Zelenskyy added that Kyiv is approaching the opening of the Ukrainian office of the International Criminal Court:

“We pay special attention to such Russian crimes as the deportation of our people, the deportation of Ukrainian children. We will dismantle this entire Russian genocidal system - from the cogs to the architects - and bring it to legal sentences.”

The BBC notes that the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, arrived in Ukraine to personally oversee the investigation into Russian strikes on power system facilities and other civilian infrastructure that killed hundreds of civilians. Karim Khan was able to see firsthand how Russia is violating the Geneva Convention, which prohibits the targeting of civilians.

Moscow continues to insist that it has the right to carry out such strikes because they are directed against the military, but Kyiv believes that the real purpose of such attacks is to intimidate and suppress the will of the population.

Ukraine has documented tens of thousands of alleged war crimes, but the ICC is likely to consider only the cases of the most senior suspects. Russia, on the other hand, accuses Ukraine of falsifying and fabricating evidence of crimes and claims that Ukrainians are guilty of numerous violations and crimes themselves.

• In May, Karim Khan said that 42 investigators from the International Criminal Court would come to Ukraine to investigate Russia's war crimes.

• In October, Zelenskyy said that Ukraine expects the International Criminal Court to open an office in Kyiv.

• As of November 22, the International Court of Justice has received 24 statements from states supporting Ukraine's position in the Ukraine v. Russia case.

• In early December, MP Andrii Osadchuk said that the International Criminal Court in The Hague was conducting a serious investigation into Russian war crimes in Ukraine. They are fully informed and receive all the necessary materials for the investigation.