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Nations discuss coordinating Ukraine war crimes probes

Published:Thursday | July 14, 2022 | 9:35 AM
A cemetery worker takes a rest from working on the graves of civilians killed in Bucha during the war with Russia, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, April 14, 2022. Ministers from dozens of nations are meeting on Thursday, July 14, 2022, in the Netherlands to discuss with the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor how best to coordinate efforts to bring to justice perpetrators of war crimes in Ukraine. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd, File)

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor called Thursday for an “overarching strategy” to bring perpetrators of war crimes in Ukraine to justice, and representatives from dozens of countries pledged to cooperate in their investigations.

Since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, his military forces have been accused of abuses ranging from killings in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha to deadly attacks on civilian facilities, including the March 16 bombing of a theatre in Mariupol that an Associated Press investigation established likely killed close to 600 people.

“The simple truth is that, as we speak, children, women and men, the young and the old, are living in terror,” ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan said as he opened the Ukraine Accountability Conference in The Hague.

Khan said Thursday's ministerial meeting addressed “a need of coordination, of coherence” and “the need of an overarching strategy” as different nations and courts work to investigate and prosecute crimes.

The AP and Frontline, which are tracking incidents in Ukraine, have so far tallied 338 potential war crimes.

As the meeting got underway in The Hague, Russian missiles struck the central Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia in what Ukraine's president called “an open act of terrorism” on the country's civilian population.

About 40 nations from the European Union and around the world sent representatives to The Hague for the conference hosted by Khan, Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Wopke Hoekstra and the European Union's justice commissioner, Didier Reynders.

Investigations of military crimes committed during the nearly 5-month war in Ukraine are underway around Europe; more than 23,000 war crimes cases have been registered in Ukraine alone, Venediktova said. The ICC and 14 EU member nations also have launched investigations.

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