Estonian Free PressEstonian Free Press
  • National Security
    • United States
    • United Kingdom
    • Europe
    • Estonia
    • Latvia
    • Lithuania
    • Moldova
    • Poland
    • Russia
    • Ukraine
  • Counterterrorism
  • Cybersecurity
  • Intelligence

Subscribe to Updates

Get the latest National Security News directly to your inbox.

What's Hot

Dodon: Ping-pong între procurori. Mai aveți să vă jucați?

August 13, 2022

Peste 6.000 de votanți sunt așteptați la alegerile locale noi

August 13, 2022

Conflictul transnistrean, discutat de Bolbocean și Klimenko

August 13, 2022
Facebook Twitter Instagram
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Contact
Saturday, August 13
Estonian Free PressEstonian Free Press
  • National Security
    • United States
    • United Kingdom
    • Europe
    • Estonia
    • Latvia
    • Lithuania
    • Moldova
    • Poland
    • Russia
    • Ukraine
  • Counterterrorism
  • Cybersecurity
  • Intelligence
en English
en Englishet Estonianlv Latvianlt Lithuanianpl Polishro Romanianru Russianuk Ukrainian
Trending
  • Dodon: Ping-pong între procurori. Mai aveți să vă jucați?
  • Peste 6.000 de votanți sunt așteptați la alegerile locale noi
  • Conflictul transnistrean, discutat de Bolbocean și Klimenko
  • Președinția, ținta unui atac cibernetic: Serverul a fost compromis
  • Cabinet minister switches support to Liz Truss in blow to Sunak’s leadership campaign
  • Cum s-a adaptat Chironda în SUA: Combin depășirea jetlag-ului cu răceală
  • Trump Mar-a-Lago Search Warrant, Property Receipt Show Agents Found Trove of Classified Docs
  • Procurorul Iarmaliuc respinge acuzațiile lui Dodon privind mama sa
Subscribe
Facebook Twitter Instagram
Estonian Free PressEstonian Free Press
Home » Ukraine is ‘crime scene’ says international criminal court as thousands flee

Ukraine is ‘crime scene’ says international criminal court as thousands flee

April 14, 20227 Mins Read Europe
Share
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email

War crimes prosecutors visiting the site of civilian killings called Ukraine a “crime scene” Wednesday (13 April), as tens of thousands of Ukrainians fled their country in advance of a fresh assault to the east.

The visit by the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor to Bucha — the Kyiv suburb now synonymous with scores of atrocities against civilians discovered in areas abandoned by Russian forces — came as the new front of the war shifts eastward, with new allegations of crimes inflicted on locals.

“Ukraine is a crime scene,” the ICC’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, told reporters in Bucha. The Hague-based court investigates and prosecutes war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.

📢Procureur #KarimAAKhanQC à #Boutcha: «#Ukraine est une scène de crime. Nous sommes ici parce que nous avons des motifs raisonnables de croire que des crimes relevant de la compétence #CPI sont commis. Nous devons transpercer le brouillard de la guerre pour parvenir à la vérité» pic.twitter.com/XxPB1iyZsl

— CPI-Cour pénale int. (@CourPenaleInt) April 13, 2022

“We’re here because we have reasonable grounds to believe that crimes within the jurisdiction of the court are being committed,” said Khan, promising to “follow the evidence” as forensic teams began their work.

To the south, Ukrainian forces struggled to hold the key strategic port of Mariupol Wednesday as artillery pounded the battered and besieged city that has been cut off from the rest of the country since early March and where Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has estimated “tens of thousands” of civilian deaths.

Russia’s defence ministry said Wednesday that 1,026 Ukrainian soldiers from the 36th Marine Brigade had surrendered in Mariupol, including 162 officers. Ukraine has not confirmed the claim.

Following its pullback earlier this month from areas north of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, Russia is refocusing its efforts eastward, the new frontline of the nearly seven-week war.

It appears aimed at capturing more territory in Donbas, where Russian-backed separatists control the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, to create a solid southern corridor — including the port of Mariupol — to occupied Crimea.

Permeated with pain

As Zelenskyy warned “the whole of Eastern Europe” was at risk if Europe wasted time in stopping Moscow, the Polish and Baltic presidents visited Ukraine in a show of support, while Britain said it had slapped sanctions on Russian separatists in Eastern Ukraine and additional oligarchs.

“It is hard to believe that such war atrocities could be perpetrated in 21st-century Europe, but that is the reality,” said Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda during a visit to the town of Borodyanka outside Kyiv, calling the area “permeated with pain and suffering”.

“Civilian Ukrainians were murdered and tortured here, and residential homes and other civilian infrastructure were bombed.”

Britain said it would sanction 178 Russian separatists, including the two “self-styled” leaders of the Russia-backed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, and six more oligarchs and their families.

Meanwhile, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said Russia had engaged in “clear patterns of international humanitarian law violations” in Ukraine.

The report by the world’s largest security body covered the period from Russia’s 24 February invasion through 1 April, before the discovery of hundreds of bodies in Bucha and elsewhere.

Those images spurred US President Joe Biden on Tuesday to level Washington’s strongest accusation yet, of genocide, against Putin’s actions in Ukraine, after having previously called the Russian president a “war criminal”.

Biden says Russia committing genocide in Ukraine

US President Joe Biden said for the first time on Tuesday (12 April) that Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine amounts to genocide, as President Vladimir Putin said Russia would “rhythmically and calmly” continue its operation and achieve its goals.

“Putin is just trying to wipe out the idea of even being able to be a Ukrainian,” Biden said, defending his statement.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called Biden’s accusation “unacceptable” Wednesday, a day after Putin said Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine was going to plan while brushing off images of civilian deaths as “fakes”.

‘Hiding crimes’

In a desperate attempt to flee what Ukrainian authorities warn will be a bloody new clash in the east, more than 40,000 people fled the country in the past 24 hours, the United Nations said Wednesday, bringing to 4.6 million the number of people who have fled since the conflict began.

But Kyiv halted humanitarian corridors in several parts of the country Wednesday, deeming them “too dangerous” for evacuations.

Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Russian forces around Zaporizhzhia in the south were blocking buses transporting the evacuated, while shooting at fleeing civilians in Lugansk.

Underscoring the risk to civilians, Ukrainian prosecutors on Wednesday accused Russian troops of shooting six men and one woman the day before in a residential home in the occupied southern village of Pravdyne.

“After this, intending to hide their crime, the occupiers blew up the building with the bodies,” prosecutors said in a statement.

Meanwhile, seven civilians were killed by Russian shelling in the northeastern Kharkiv region in the past 24 hours, regional governor Oleg Synegubov said on social media.

Clean them out

In Mariupol, air strikes continued, particularly on the port and the huge Azovstal iron and steel works, the Ukrainian army said on Telegram.

The steel plant’s maze-like complex has been a focus of resistance in Mariupol, with fighters using a tunnel system below the vast industrial site to slow Russian forces down.

“It’s a city within a city,” said Eduard Basurin, a representative for pro-Russian separatists in Donetsk, citing subterranean areas that cannot be bombed from above.

“You have to go underground to clean them out, and that will take time.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he could not confirm allegations that Russia had used chemical weapons in the area, but Washington had “credible information” Russia might use tear gas mixed with chemical agents in the besieged port.

Russians in morgue

Suggesting a Russian buildup to the east, US private satellite firm Maxar Technologies published images Wednesday it said showed Russian ground forces moving towards the border with Ukraine.

Other convoys in and near the Donbas region comprised around 200 vehicles including tanks, artillery and armoured personnel carriers, it said.

Even as the military focus shifted eastward, the grim work of accounting for the civilian dead continued in areas recently abandoned by Russia’s army.

North of Bucha in the town of Gostomel, locals exhumed the body of Mayor Yuriy Prylypko, who authorities said was shot while “handing out bread to the hungry and medicine to the sick” and hastily buried by a local priest.

Up to 400 people are unaccounted for Gostomel, said regional prosecutor Andiy Tkach. AFP witnessed dozens of body bags filling a refrigerated lorry trailer, as two others awaited more corpses.

“Our citizens are murdered and we must bury every person in the right way,” said Igor Karpishen, loading the truck.

“I don’t have any words to express these feelings.”

Zelenskyy accused Russian forces in occupied towns of committing hundreds of rapes, including of young children and a baby.

Bucha Mayor Anatoly Fedoruk said more than 400 people were found dead after Moscow’s forces withdrew, with 25 reported rapes.

Meanwhile, an official in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro said Wednesday the remains of more than 1,500 Russian soldiers were being kept in its morgues.

Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Telegram Email

Articles Liés

FBI looked for ‘nuclear arms documents’ at Trump home, says newspaper

August 12, 2022 Europe

Possible extradition of Russian national from Bulgaria raises eyebrows

August 12, 2022 Europe

Kraken and Thales Sign Agreement

August 11, 2022 Europe

FNSS: A Globally trusted and respected Turkish partner in defence

August 11, 2022 Europe

EU to stand firm in clash with Poland over cash, officials say

August 11, 2022 Europe

Milrem Robotics Deliver First THeMIS UGV to Spain

August 10, 2022 Europe
Don't Miss
Moldova

Peste 6.000 de votanți sunt așteptați la alegerile locale noi

By woe whAugust 13, 20220

Peste 6.000 de alegători sunt așteptați în cele 3 localități din țară unde, la 16…

Conflictul transnistrean, discutat de Bolbocean și Klimenko

August 13, 2022

Președinția, ținta unui atac cibernetic: Serverul a fost compromis

August 13, 2022

Cabinet minister switches support to Liz Truss in blow to Sunak’s leadership campaign

August 12, 2022
Stay In Touch
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • Vimeo
Our Picks

Trump Mar-a-Lago Search Warrant, Property Receipt Show Agents Found Trove of Classified Docs

August 12, 2022

Procurorul Iarmaliuc respinge acuzațiile lui Dodon privind mama sa

August 12, 2022

Salman Rushdie Stabbed Onstage at N.Y. Event; New Jersey Man Arrested

August 12, 2022

Візові обмеження для громадян РФ справедливі, і всі захисники європейських цінностей мають на них наполягати – звернення Президента України

August 12, 2022

Subscribe to Updates

Get the latest National Security News directly to your inbox.

© 2022 Estonian Free Press. All rights reserved.
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Contact

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.