War Crimes Meeting Held at Hague Over Russia-Ukraine War

Representatives of a group of nations working together to investigate war crimes in Ukraine are meeting in The Hague amid ongoing calls for those responsible for atrocities to be brought to justice.

Tuesday’s coordination meeting at the European Union’s judicial cooperation agency, Eurojust, of members of a Joint Investigation Team and International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan comes as Russian forces continue to pound Ukrainian towns.

Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine has been widely condemned as an illegal act of aggression.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, the AP and PBS have verified 273 potential war crimes.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has denounced killings of civilians as “genocide” and “war crimes,” while U.S. President Joe Biden has called Russian President Vladimir Putin “a war criminal” who should be brought to trial.

The joint investigation team, made up of Ukraine, Lithuania and Poland, that is meeting Tuesday in The Hague was established in late March, a few weeks after the ICC opened an investigation in Ukraine, after dozens of the court’s member states threw their weight behind an inquiry.

Russia staunchly denies its troops are responsible for atrocities. The Defense Ministry said earlier this month that “not a single civilian has faced any violent action by the Russian military.”

The meeting in The Hague isn’t the only place accountability is being sought.

Prosecutors in Poland, Germany, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, France, Slovakia, Sweden, Norway and Switzerland have opened investigations of their own. And there have been growing calls to set up a special tribunal to try Russia for the crime of aggression in Ukraine. The ICC can’t prosecute the crime of aggression because neither Russia nor Ukraine are members of the court.