Britain sends war crimes experts to Ukraine: Foreign Office
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The announcement comes as Foreign Secretary Liz Truss travels to The Hague, Netherlands.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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LONDON (AFP, REUTERS) - Britain said on Friday (April 29) it was sending experts to help Ukraine with gathering evidence and prosecuting war crimes.
Evidence of atrocities has emerged since Moscow’s February invasion of its pro-Western neighbour, and calls are mounting for war crimes probes.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said Britain would send a team to the country in May to work with the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is spearheading an active war crimes probe.
"We will be sending a British evidence-collecting team working with Ukrainian authorities working with the ICC," Truss said.
The investigators will seek to gather a “wide range of evidence, witness statements, forensic evidence and video evidence”, Truss said.
“We’re also using British intelligence to help show the links between what is happening on the front line and the Russian authorities, because it’s important that everybody in the chain of command is held to account,” she said.
Ukraine says it is investigating some 7,600 potential war crimes and at least 500 suspects following Russia's Feb 24 invasion of the country.
ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan visited Ukraine earlier this month, travelling to the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, where at least 20 bodies were discovered on April 2.
Khan at the time said a forensic team would be working in Bucha, adding that Ukraine as a whole was a “crime scene”.
His office told AFP said it was “grateful for the strong support of the United Kingdom”, including a recent donation of £1 million (S$1.74 million) to the ICC.
Dutch foreign minister Wopke Hoekstra, who met Truss on Thursday, also said the Netherlands would dispatch 30 investigators to Ukraine, mainly from the military police.
The investigators will concentrate their probe around Kyiv for two weeks under the banner of the ICC.
Moscow calls its actions a "special operation" aimed at degrading Kyiv's military power and protecting Russian-speakers living in the east of the country.
