Ukraine war: Kyiv’s battle for justice over alleged Russian war crimes
Ukraine’s fightback against Russian aggression is not just on the battlefield – but in the legal field too.
Across this shattered country, testimony is being gathered and evidence collated for a goal that may only come long after the guns fall silent – international justice.
The pursuit of it is being led by Ukraine’s Prosecutor General, Iryna Venediktova, appointed two years ago as the first woman to hold the office.
She watched the exhumation of another mass grave this week, beneath a gold-domed church in Bucha, where the darkest of sins were discovered – 10 victims this time, some completely charred. Their remains were placed into body bags and taken off for an attempt at identification.
As she stood at the edge of the deep pit, she told me more than 6,000 cases of war crimes have already been opened.
“A lot of people speak about the genocide of the Ukrainian people – and we actually have grounds to talk about genocide,” she said. “Vladimir Putin is the president of the aggressor country killing civilians here in Ukraine. He’s responsible.”
The Kremlin continues to deny such allegations.
The challenge for prosecutors will be to draw a direct line of responsibility from the top of the Russian state to the atrocities on the ground – and show that they weren’t just committed but ordered.
Russia is not a party to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague, having withdrawn in 2016. Nor, in fact, is Ukraine, although it does accept the court’s jurisdiction for crimes committed within its territory.
The possibility of ever seeing President Putin himself in a tribunal is thought to be extremely slim.
But Venediktova insisted it was her government’s ultimate aim. “It’s very important, not just for Ukrainians,” she said, “it’s important for the whole world to stop dictators.”
The efforts of the Ukrainian state are being helped by a network of volunteer investigators, deployed across the country in a grassroots quest for justice.
Among them is an NGO called Truth Hounds, whose staff have been trained by former prosecutors from the ICC.
SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES