Ukraine and allies open centre to prepare for trials over Russia’s invasion

Kyiv, Brussels and Washington have hailed the opening of an international centre to investigate the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine, as a senior Russian politician claimed there was nothing criminal in the transfer of 700,000 Ukrainian children to his country.

Meanwhile, heavy fighting continued in eastern and southeastern Ukraine, where Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy admitted the last week had been “difficult” for his nation’s military, which said it had retaken some 37 sq km of land during that time.

Officials and prosecutors from Ukraine, the European Union, the United States and the Netherlands inaugurated the International Centre for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression Against Ukraine (ICPA), which will gather evidence and prepare cases for future trials over an invasion that has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions.

The centre is expected to work closely with the International Criminal Court (ICC), which cannot currently prosecute the crime of aggression. Both institutions are based in The Hague.

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“The official launch of the [centre] is a clear signal that the world is united and unwavering on the path to holding the Russian regime accountable for all its crimes. There is, unfortunately, a gaping hole in accountability for the crime of aggression in the international criminal justice architecture,” said Ukrainian prosecutor general Andriy Kostin.

“If the crimes of aggression would not have been committed there would be no other 93,000 incidents of war crimes,” he added, referring to cases now on the books of Ukraine’s prosecutors 16 months after the start of Russia’s all-out invasion.

EU justice commissioner Didier Reynders said the establishment of the centre showed the bloc’s “commitment to ensuring full accountability for the international crimes committed during Russia’s war against Ukraine”.

US assistant attorney general Kenneth Polite Jr said his country would be represented at the ICPA by Jessica Kim, its newly appointed prosecutor for the crime of aggression, who would have “unfettered access to the substantial body of expertise and resources that the [justice] department has amassed in response to Russia’s unlawful war of aggression against Ukraine”.

The ICC issued an arrest warrant in March for Russian president Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, his commissioner for children’s rights, over their alleged roles in the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia. The Kremlin dismissed the allegations and said it did not recognise the jurisdiction of the court.

“In recent years, 700,000 children, fleeing bombing and shelling in conflict areas of Ukraine, have found refuge with us. Many together with their parents, and children from orphanages – with their carers,” Grigory Karasin, head of the international committee in Russia’s upper house of parliament, said on Sunday.

“It is well known that Russia, unlike a number of European countries, has always treated children with care and warmth,” he added, repeating Moscow’s claim that it is not deporting or abducting Ukrainian children but protecting them from harm.

The United Nations put Russia’s military on a “list of shame” last month due to its treatment of children of Ukraine. According to a report prepared for the UN Security Council, Moscow’s troops and their proxies killed 136 children in Ukraine last year, injured 518 and used 91 as human shields. They also carried out 480 attacks on schools and hospitals.

Mr Zelenskiy said on Monday that “last week was difficult on the frontline. But we are making progress. We are moving forward, step by step.” Ukraine’s military said it retook 37.4 sq km of land in the east and southeast over that period.

Russia says Ukrainian forces are making no significant progress and suffering heavy casualties since launching their long-awaited counteroffensive last month.