KIEV (dpa-AFX) – The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj has emphatically spoken out in favor of a criminal investigation of the Russian war of aggression against his country at international level. “We will smash this entire Russian genocidal system – from the cogs to the architects – and bring it to justice,” said Zelenskyy in his daily video address on Tuesday evening. This is not an easy task. However, if the “Russian crimes” were punished by an international court within the framework of the rule of law, this would guarantee security for Ukrainians and other peoples in the long term.
The Russian attack on Ukraine will inevitably have legal ramifications for everyone who conceived, approved and implemented such a policy, Zelenskyy said. “And I would like to emphasize that it’s not just about those who carry it out, but also about the highest political and military leadership of the terrorist state.”
He spoke about this on Tuesday in Kiev with chief prosecutor Karim Khan from the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Zelensky said. Particular attention was paid to the children brought to Russia from the occupied Ukrainian territories. Kiev describes the process as “violent kidnapping”.
An action by the International Criminal Court, for example, against the head of the Kremlin Wladimir Putin is currently not possible, among other things, because neither Russia nor Ukraine are contracting parties to the Rome Statute as the legal basis for this court. Kiev is campaigning for international support for a special tribunal./wo/DP/he