Russian troops have been accused of heinous war crimes over the past 20 months of war in Ukraine.
Rape, torture and the massacre of civilians are among the allegations raised by Kyiv and international organisations monitoring the course of the conflict in the eastern European country.
Claims of war crimes are not limited to single soldiers or battalions, and have made their way to the Kremlin.
In March, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants against Russian President Vladimir Putin and Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova, accused of involvement in the child abductions allegedly undertaken in Ukraine’s Russian-occupied territories.
The Ukrainian Office of the Prosecutor General (OPG) is investigating the war crime allegations and incidents registered so far – more than 110,000, with experts at international human rights law firm Global Rights Compliance (GRC) lending their support to tackle this immense workload.
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Among them is Anna Mykytenko, senior lawyer and the Ukraine Country Manager at GRC, who shed light on the work being carried out by Ukrainian authorities.
Asked if there is a chance Putin will ever be tried in court, she told Express.co.uk: “Despite his diplomatic immunity, Putin already may be arrested in the territory of the ICC state parties and brought to the Hague. This is on the basis of the arrest warrant issued last year for the deportation of children.
“Ukrainian authorities continue gathering evidence of other war crimes to ensure further charges, and hopefully the time to see Putin in the dock will come soon.”
The Russian president has so far been avoiding arrest by only travelling to countries that don’t recognise the authority of the ICC.
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As of September, Ukrainian authorities alleged that over the past 20 months Russia has illegally deported to territories it controls at least 20,000 children, with the aim to re-educate them and raise them as Russians.
Speaking about what has emerged so far when it comes to the crimes possibly committed by Russians in Ukraine, Ms Mykytenko painted a harrowing picture of the horrors to which some Ukrainians may have been subjected.
She said: “While the full extent of war crimes and other international crimes is yet to be uncovered, certain patterns are already starting to emerge.
“These include the attempts to terrorise civilians in the occupied territories into submission, among other methods through detention, torture and use of sexual violence.
“Some of the documented incidents may warrant investigations into genocide in several regions. GRCโs Mobile Justice Teams are committed to assisting the Office of the Prosecutor General in their efforts to investigate these patterns and bring alleged perpetrators to accountability.”
The United Nations Independent Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine expressed in September concerns about allegations of genocide by Russian forces and announced they were looking into them.
During an oral update delivered to the Human Rights Council, the UN body laid out observations about unlawful attacks using explosive weapons as well as sexual and gender-based violence.
Commission chair Erik Mose said last month: “In some cases, torture was inflicted with such brutality that it caused the death of the victims.”
The commission also claimed Russian soldiers in the Kherson region “raped and committed sexual violence against women of ages ranging from 19 to 83 years”, often while keeping family members “in an adjacent room hence being forced to hear the violations taking place”.
Not all the documented crimes and incidents will lead to convictions, Ms Mykytenko explained.
She said: “Some of these incidents will be aggregated into complex investigations, some may be eventually dropped, for example, if suspects are killed in hostilities.”
Speaking about the work of prosecutors, Ms Mykytenko added: “Ukrainian authorities are committed to ensuring that all survivors of international crimes have access to justice and accountability, including reparations, for the harm they suffered, through investigations and prosecutions. These efforts are mostly domestic but also involve universal jurisdiction mechanisms, international courts and tribunals.
“At the moment, Ukrainian investigators and prosecutors, some with the assistance from the mobile justice teams, increasingly focus on building cases not only against direct perpetrators (individual soldiers) but also against their commanders, hoping to get to the top of the political and military hierarchy behind the crimes committed in Ukraine.”
Russia has so far denied that any war crimes have occurred during the conflict in Ukraine by the hands of Russians.
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