Ukrainian prosecutors believe they will identify 100,000 war crimes
Ukrainian prosecutors believe they will identify 100,000 war crimes carried out by Russian soldiers in the first three months of the conflict
- Prosecutor general of Ukraine Iryna Venediktova predicts there will be at least 1,000 defendants in war crimes trials when the cases finally proceed to court
- A family of three were tortured and shot before being set on fire by Russians
- The Russian army is said to have entered Severodonetsk in eastern Ukraine
Ukrainian officials gathering evidence of Russian war crimes believe they will uncover more than 100,000 cases before their investigations are over.
The country has registered a total of 14,000 war crimes, according to the prosecutor general of Ukraine Iryna Venediktova.
She predicts there will be at least 1,000 defendants when the cases finally proceed to court.
‘Today we have near 14,000 cases, only about war crimes, and near 6,000 cases which are connected,’ Venediktova told the BBC.
‘It means that we have huge number of precedents and every day we have more and more: it’s [an] extra 100, [an] extra 200, it depends on the day.’
In Kharkiv, where Venediktova’s team is gathering evidence, investigators discovered three burnt corpses in a basement and evidence of arson.
What appears to be a family – a man, woman and child – were tortured and shot before they were covered in car tyres and set on fire.
Iryna Venediktova is the prosecutor general of Ukraine, the first woman to hold the office. She believes they will uncover more than 100,000 cases before their investigations are over, with at least 1,000 defendants when the cases finally proceed
The country has registered a total of 14,000 war crimes as the savage conflict continues
The team is also investigating reports that a Russian soldier raped a woman in the village of Little Rogan.
Who is Iryna Venediktova?
Iryna Venediktova is the prosecutor general of Ukraine, the first woman to hold the office.
Venediktova, a 43-year-old former law professor, has said her stated mission is to make Putin and his forces ‘pay for what they have done’.
‘I protect the public interest of Ukrainian citizens. And now I see that I can’t protect these dead kids,’ she told AP. ‘And for me it’s pain.’
Venediktova has stationed prosecutors at refugee centers across the country and at border crossings, attempting to collect evidence.
Her war crimes unit has around 50 dedicated prosecutors – the identity of which are not being disclosed publicly.
The investigation must be held to international standards, or else perpetrators of war crimes could go free when the time comes to seek justice.
Prosecutors interview Ukrainian refugees, looking for statements on war crimes committed throughout the country.
Those interviewed are often asked to retrieve items which could prove vital to the prosecution in a court of law – such as a refugee having to retrieve a piece of mortal shell that destroyed their home.
Her office cooperates closely with prosecutors from the International Criminal Court and nearly a dozen countries.
Poland, Germany, France and Lithuania have all of which have opened criminal investigations into atrocities in Ukraine.
Huge parts of the country have been turned into a potential crime scene.
She had been hiding from the Russians in a school when the military officer broke inside and ordered her into a classroom, where he raped her for hours. Her family managed to escape while she was tortured.
‘New horrors are being discovered every day. The scale of the savagery and barbaric behaviour is unheard of,’ a source in Venediktova’s office told The Sun.
‘The focus is building as much evidence together as possible to make sure the monsters responsible for these evil crimes get justice.’
Ukraine has already begun prosecuting captured Russian soldiers responsible for war crimes.
Two captured Russian soldiers pleaded guilty on Thursday to shelling a town in eastern Ukraine in the second war crimes trial of the war.
At the trial in the Kotelevska district court in central Ukraine, state prosecutors asked for Alexander Bobikin and Alexander Ivanov to be jailed for 12 years for violating the laws of war.
A defence lawyer asked for leniency, saying the two soldiers had been following orders and repented.
Bobikin and Ivanov, who stood in a reinforced glass box, acknowledged being part of an artillery unit that fired at targets in the Kharkiv region from the Belgorod region in Russia.
The shelling destroyed an educational establishment in the town of Derhachi, the prosecutors said.
The servicemen, described as an artillery driver and a gunner, were captured after crossing the border and continuing the shelling, the prosecutor general’s office said.
‘I am completely guilty of the crimes of which I am accused. We fired at Ukraine from Russia,’ Bobikin told the court in proceedings that were streamed live.
Asking not to be handed the maximum jail term, Ivanov said: ‘I repent and ask for a reduction in the sentence.’
The hearing lasted under an hour, with the verdict expected on May 31.
The first Russian suspected of conducting the massacre of civilians in Bucha has also been identified.
Sergey Kolotsey, commander of a Russian National Guard unit, allegedly killed four unarmed men on March 18 and tortured another civilian on March 29, according to the prosecutor general.
Russian tank commander Vadim Shishimarin, 21, pleaded guilty to killing an unarmed Ukrainian civilian in the opening days of the war after being ordered to shoot him.
More than 45 Russian soldiers involved in war crimes have been identified so far, with more expected to follow.
Russian tank commander Vadim Shishimarin, 21, pleaded guilty to killing an unarmed Ukrainian civilian in the opening days of the war after being ordered to shoot him.
The court sentenced Shishimarin to life in prison after he pled guilty to charges of war crimes and murder for killing 62-year-old Oleksandr Shelipov, who he shot in the head in the northeastern village of Chupakhivka, Sumy region, on February 28 while he was pushing his bicycle along the road.
More than 45 Russian soldiers involved in war crimes have been identified so far, with more expected to follow.
Venediktova’s office has already opened over 8,000 criminal investigations related to the war and identified over 500 suspects, including Russian ministers, military commanders and propagandists.
The United Kingdom’s Attorney General hosted a two-day visit of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General.
The visit is part of an of ongoing dialogue between the UK and Ukraine to help Ukraine seek justice for Russia’s atrocities.
Apartment buildings damaged during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the town of Popasna in the Luhansk region
Ukraine has admitted it may have to retreat from its last post in the Luhansk region as Russian forces continue their relentless march
Smoke rises at a warehouse after shelling in Severodonetsk. The Russian army is said to have entered Severodonetsk in eastern Ukraine, as Putin’s army begins making gains in the country which had failed to materialse over the previous three months of war
An Ukraine soldier rests at a checkpoint in Severodonetsk, eastern Ukraine. Russian forces have captured three towns in the Donetsk region in total, including Svitlodarsk, according to regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko
The Russian advance in the east has been backed by massive artillery bombardment across as many as 50 towns in Donetsk and Luhansk to force Ukrainian troops to retreat (destroyed residential building in Popasna, Luhansk, Ukraine, May 26)
Service members of pro-Russian troops drive a tank along a street past a destroyed residential building during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the town of Popasna in the Luhansk Region, Ukraine May 26
Russia has stepped up its attacks in the Donbas region in the east of of Ukraine, an area that is more pro-separatist than the rest of the country
The news comes as Ukraine has admitted it may have to retreat from its last post in the Luhansk region as Russian forces continue their relentless march.
Ukrainian soldiers leaving Luhansk would be a blow to the country, due to its symbolic significance in the war.
Ukraine’s military said it had repelled eight attacks in Donetsk and Luhansk on Friday, destroying tanks and armoured vehicles while holding out, but experts warn the defending army may struggle to hold the territory.
Russian troops may be just 16 miles away from encircling Ukraine’s elite special forces in a potential major victory for Vladimir Putin in the Donbas, reported The Daily Telegraph.
Russian troops advanced after piercing Ukrainian lines last week in the city of Popasna, south of Severodonetsk.
Russian forces have captured three towns in the Donetsk region and several villages, including Svitlodarsk, according to regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko.
Putin’s forces – now into their fourth month of the invasion – have concentrated on the east of the country in recent weeks.
The Russian army is said to have entered Severodonetsk in eastern Ukraine, as Putin’s army begins making gains in the country which had failed to materialse over the previous three months of war.
Around 90 per cent of buildings in Severodonetsk were damaged with 14 high-rises destroyed in the latest shelling.
Russia’s separatist proxies said they controlled Lyman, a railway hub west of Severodonetsk.
Ukraine said Russia had captured most of Lyman but that its forces were blocking an advance to Sloviansk, to the southwest.
Analysts at the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said Russian forces would likely struggle to take ground in the city itself.
Russian howitzers in firing positions north of Lyman on Friday. Lyman is a railway hub west of Severodonetsk
Damaged buildings and tanks on the road in Lyman, which Russian forces have captured most of
Ukraine has admitted it may have to retreat from its last post in the Luhansk region as Russian forces continue their relentless attacks in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine. Russian troops have entered Severodonetsk, the largest Donbas city still held by Ukraine, after trying to trap Ukrainian forces there for days
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