Russia should cooperate with the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation into alleged war crimes committed since Moscow invaded Ukraine, the court’s prosecutor told AFP on Friday.
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“The invitation is there. My door is open and I will continue to knock on the door of the Russian Federation as well,” Karim Khan said in a court interview in The Hague.
“If there are any allegations from the Russian Federation, if there is any information they have, if they are conducting their own investigations or prosecutions or if they have relevant information, please share it with us” , he added.
The British lawyer also insisted that those guilty of war crimes could be brought to justice, although he declined to say whether Russian President Vladimir Putin himself could ever be a suspect.
Neither Russia nor Ukraine are members of the ICC, but Kyiv has accepted the court’s jurisdiction and is working with the prosecutor’s office in its investigation of possible war crimes and crimes against humanity committed on its territory. .
The prosecutor announced four days after the Russian invasion an investigation into the situation in Ukraine, which has since received the green light from dozens of ICC states parties.
Russia, however, says the war crimes allegations are false and Vladimir Putin justified the invasion by saying Ukraine was overseeing a “genocide” in the east of the country.
“If anyone makes these allegations, cooperate, share the information,” he said.
“If any information is false, we will also not say publicly,” he added.
