The International Criminal Court (ICC) opened a field office in Kyiv, which will become the largest representation of the court outside The Hague. The office will focus on investigating all evidence of Russian war crimes.
Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Karim Khan and Prosecutor General of Ukraine Andriy Kostin informed about this at the briefing, as "Babel" correspondent Oksana Kovalenko reports.
"The work of the office will make it possible to strengthen interaction with the ICC, increase the efficiency of responding to Russian crimes," Kostin noted.
“The office that officially opened this morning is not just an office for me, it is not a prosecutorʼs office. This is the ICC office. Therefore, I must also thank the president of the court, the secretary of the court, because this is the office of the ICC here — in Kyiv, in Ukraine, and he is not here for cosmetic reasons. He is not here because we want to own some real estate, to rent some real estate in Ukraine. Heʼs here because we have a job to do, which is to make sure the law works," Khan noted.
Khan did not answer the question of how many investigators will work in the Kyiv office, noting that he is not disclosing it for security reasons. But he noted that since May this is a permanent staff that works on a rotational basis.
He added that starting in May 2022, representatives of the International Criminal Court will work in Ukraine in close cooperation with the Prosecutor Generalʼs Office.
Khan added that the office is focused on investigating all evidence of Russian war crimes.
"If at the end we come to a clear conclusion that there is criminal responsibility that we can prove beyond a reasonable doubt, we will make the necessary request to the judges of the ICC, as we have done in the past," he noted.
To a clarifying question, whether field office investigators will have access to prisoners of war in order, in particular, to collect testimony about the actions of the military leadership, he replied that he could not say about that.
"We have very good cooperation with the General Prosecutorʼs Office. We make access to information requests and receive responses. But Iʼm not going to comment on the specifics of who weʼre meeting or what documents weʼre getting because the criminal investigation is ongoing," Khan said.
Prosecutor General of Ukraine Andriy Kostin noted that "unlike the criminal Russian regime, Ukraine has nothing to hide."
"We adhere to the principles of the rule of law and cooperate on the basis of mutual trust, openness and professionalism. After all, together with the entire civilized world, we are united by one goal: to ensure fair punishment of the aggressor for all crimes committed. Only such a result will be a guarantee of restoration and preservation of peace for Ukraine and the whole world," he stated.