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A wide range of war crimes have likely been committed in Ukraine since 2014, according to prosecutors at the International Criminal Court in The Hague (ICC).
A man commemorates the victims of clashes with Ukrainian security forces on Maidan Square in Kiev, on the seventh anniversary of the outbreak of the demonstrations on November 21. Photo: Efrem Lukatsky / AP / NTB
ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda requests a full investigation of the allegations now that the preliminary investigations have been completed.
Bensouda’s office has concluded that there are reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed in Ukraine.
“My office further found that these crimes, committed by various parties to the conflict, are also serious enough to warrant an investigation by my office, both in a quantitative and qualitative sense,” he said in a statement late Friday.
Demonstrations
All investigations started in 2014 when the Ukrainian government gave the ICC the green light to examine the alleged crimes during the pro-EU Maidan demonstrations. They reached their peak when pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted in February 2014.
The violent clashes in central Kiev in February 2014 cost more than 100 lives. Photograph: Efrem Lukatsky / TT / NTB Scanpix
Ukraine, which is not a member of the ICC, has given Bensouda permission to expand his investigations to include the war that broke out in the east of the country.
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Downed passenger plane
Several thousand people have died since pro-Russian militias in eastern Ukraine went to war to demand independence in 2014. The conflict has lasted for several years and has caused a deep rift in relations between Moscow and the West.
The Malaysia Airlines passenger plane with 298 people on board in July 2014 was shot down during the war by Donbass. All died. According to Dutch prosecutors, the rocket was fired from an area controlled by pro-Russian rebels, who received support from Russia.
298 people were killed when Malaysia Airlines MH17 was shot down in 2014. Photo: SERGEI KARPUKHIN / X00944
Russian authorities have denied any involvement in the shooting.
Many fleeing
The ongoing war between the Ukrainian government forces and the separatists has claimed some 13,000 lives. 1.5 million people have been forced to flee.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky agreed in December last year on a series of measures to restart the peace process in Ukraine.
