Russian President Vladimir Putin.Photo: RUSSIAN PRESIDENT PRESS SERVICE/HANDOUT/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
A prosecutor with the International Criminal Court said hewill open an investigationinto alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in theRussian invasion of Ukraine.
“I have decided to proceed with opening an investigation into the Situation in Ukraine, as rapidly as possible,” Karim Khan said in a statement Monday. “I am satisfied that there is a reasonable basis to believe that both alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed in Ukraine.”
Khan’s announcement comes after Ukraine’s PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyyaccused Russian invaders of committing crimes, and the country’s health ministry reported Sunday that more than 350 civilians were killed,including 14 children, since the attacks began last week.
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The death toll is even higher now, following apparentrocket strikes during an attackon Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, in the northeast.
“Today, Russian troops shelled Kharkiv using rocket artillery,” Zelenskyy said ina Facebook videoMonday. “This is, without any doubt, a military crime. A peaceful city. Peaceful residential neighborhoods. Not a single military object in sight.”
The city’s mayor, Igor Terekhov, echoed the president’s outrage in his own statement,The New York Timesreports.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy.LECOCQ/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
“Today showed that this is not only a war, it is the murder of us, the Ukrainian people,” he said.
Last week Russiadeniedaccounts that it was striking civilian areas.
Meanwhile, photos show a40-mile-long military convoyhas been approaching the capital city of Kyiv, a city of 2.8 million, as residents flee or prepare to face the possibility of Russian onslaught.
“I will continue to closely follow developments on the ground in Ukraine,” he added, “and again call for restraint and strict adherence to the applicable rules of international humanitarian law.”
Zelenskyy requested European Union membership for Ukraine in an address on Tuesday.
“We are fighting for survival,” he said in a remote speech to the European Parliament.
“We have proven our strength,” he added. “So do prove that you are with us. Prove that you will not let us go. Prove that you, indeed, are Europeans.”
A woman stands in front of a destroyed building after a Russian missile attack in the town of Vasylkiv, near Kyiv, Ukraine, on Sunday.Courtesy toska husted
Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues after the countryinvaded on Thursday, with forces moving from the north, south and east.
“You don’t know where to go, where to run, who you have to call,” Liliya Marynchak, a 45-year-old teacher in Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine,told PEOPLE recently of the moment her city was bombed.
“This is just panic,” she said.
Sergei Supinsky/AFP via Getty
Putin insists Ukraine has historic ties to Russia and he is acting in the interest of so-called “peacekeeping.”
“The prayers of the entire world are with the people of Ukraine,” U.S. PresidentJoe Bidensaid as the invasion began in force in February.
source: people.com
