More than a year and a half after the start of the Russian invasion, the Hague institution moved to kyiv to be able to investigate war crimes.

By QM with AFP

Un strong act of the international community at the heart of the war in Ukraine. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has opened an office in kyiv, “the largest” outside The Hague, Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andriï Kostin announced Thursday, September 14.

“The field office of the International Criminal Court has opened its doors in Ukraine,” he declared on X (formerly Twitter), assuring that this represented “a decisive step in our journey towards the restoration of justice”. Ukraine is seeking to establish a special court to indict Russian leaders following the invasion of the country, launched on February 24, 2022.

kyiv announced in March the upcoming opening of an ICC office to “investigate more fully international crimes committed in Ukraine”. “Unlike the criminal Russian regime, Ukraine has nothing to hide,” assured Andriï Kostin, promising that his country would be “transparent” and would allow ICC experts to access “crime scenes, evidence and to the testimonies.”

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“We are united by one goal”

“We are doing everything possible to ensure that ICC experts can see with their own eyes the consequences of the perpetrator’s crimes and draw independent conclusions,” he said. “Along with the entire civilized world, we are united by one goal – to ensure that the perpetrator is held accountable for the crimes committed,” the prosecutor added.

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At the same time, an international office responsible for investigating the crime of “aggression” against Ukraine opened in The Hague (Netherlands) at the beginning of July, which, according to Kiev, constitutes a first “historic” step towards the creation of a special court.

This International Center for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine (ICPA) brings together prosecutors from kyiv, the European Union, the United States and the International Criminal Court. The ICC, which sits in The Hague, also issued an arrest warrant in March against Russian President Vladimir Putin for the alleged deportation of Ukrainian children.