“I have decided to proceed with opening an investigation,” Karim A.A. Khan QC, ICC Prosecutor
“Today, I wish to announce that I have decided to proceed with opening an investigation into the Situation in Ukraine, as rapidly as possible.
I have reviewed the Office’s conclusions arising from the preliminary examination of the Situation in Ukraine, and have confirmed that there is a reasonable basis to proceed with opening an investigation. In particular, I am satisfied that there is a reasonable basis to believe that both alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed in Ukraine in relation to the events already assessed during the preliminary examination by the Office. Given the expansion of the conflict in recent days, it is my intention that this investigation will also encompass any new alleged crimes falling within the jurisdiction of my Office that are committed by any party to the conflict on any part of the territory of Ukraine”, ICC Prosecutor said.
Bombing innocent civilians “already fully qualifies as a war crime”, British Prime Minister said during the press-conference today.
He was responding to the Scottish National Party’s Ian Blackford, who called for Mr Putin to be prosecuted.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky has already accused Russia of war crimes after air strikes on the country’s second city, Kharkiv.
More than 500 civilians, including 16 children, have been killed and more than 2,000 wounded since the invasion began.
Hundreds of buildings – transport facilities, hospitals, kindergartens, homes – had been destroyed. “
The UN refugee agency said 836,000 people had now fled Ukraine.
Vladimir Putin has ordered Russia’s military to put its deterrence forces, which include nuclear weapons, on “special alert”.
He told defence chiefs it was because of “aggressive statements” by the West, amid widespread condemnation of his invasion of Ukraine.
Former Director of National Intelligence Jim Clapper echoed Rice’s assessment of the Russian ruler, who has grown increasingly frustrated over his failure to swiftly subdue Ukrainian forces.
“I personally think he’s unhinged,” Clapper said Sunday on CNN. “I worry about his acuity and balance.”
The concerns about Putin’s shaky mental health are particularly relevant given that he has his finger on the nuclear trigger, Clapper added.
Senior intelligence officials who have known Putin for decades told Fox News that he has been isolated for months at his presidential compound interacting exclusively with a small group of advisers and cronies.
Canada made a formal request to the International Criminal Court to investigate the Russian regime for war crimes and crimes against humanity over its invasion of Ukraine. The decision by Canada, was announced Tuesday in Geneva by Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly, a day after International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan said he would open a probe into allegations against Russia.
Russia’s aging, lonely leader has two daughters. When journalist asked if he played with his grandchild, Putin replied, “Very seldom, unfortunately.”
In June 2020, a special court in The Hague indicted Kosovar President Hashim Thaci on ten counts of war crimes—including murder, forced disappearances, persecution, and torture—allegedly committed during the breakaway region’s conflict with the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1998–1999. Thaci, who pleads not guilty to the charges, headed the political wing of the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).
Georgia fought a brief war with Russia in 2008 as a result of which it lost its territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. In 2016, the ICC prosecutor authorised the opening of an investigation “for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in the context of an international armed conflict between 1 July and 10 October 2008”.
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