Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday that he was convinced that Russian President Putin would face an international war crimes court if Ukraine wins the war that has been going on for more than a year.
In a speech titled “No peace without justice for Ukraine” in The Hague, the city that hosts the International Criminal Court, Mr Zelensky said Mr Putin “deserves to be punished for these criminal actions, right here in the capital”. International law.”
“And I’m sure we’ll see that happen when we win. And we will win,” he said The ICC has issued an arrest warrant for Mr Putin for alleged war crimes in Ukraine related to the kidnapping of children.
The ICC itself cannot prosecute the crime of war aggression. Mr. Zelensky’s speech was an appeal for a full tribunal to try that widespread crime, a heartfelt plea for a special tribunal for aggression.
“If we want true justice, we should not look for excuses and not refer to the shortcomings of the current international law, but take bold decisions that will remove those shortcomings that unfortunately exist in international law.”
Mr Zelensky’s speech came a day after he denied the Ukrainian military was responsible for the Kremlin’s assassination attempt on Mr Putin. drone attack on moscow, The Kremlin promised retaliation for what it termed a “terrorist” act.
Mr Putin’s spokesman on Thursday accused the US of being behind the alleged attack.
Dmitry Peskov told reporters during a daily conference call that the Kremlin “was well aware that decisions on such actions and terrorist attacks are made not in Kiev, but in Washington.”
“And then Kiev does what it is told to do,” Mr Peskov said without offering evidence for his claim.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s military claimed that three Russian drones that attacked the southern city of Odessa early Thursday had the words “for Moscow” and “for the Kremlin” written on them, a reference to attacks in Moscow. In addition, Kiev became the target of airstrikes for the third time in four days.
Overall, the Air Force of Ukraine intercepted 18 out of 24 Iranian-made drones launched by the Russian military in various areas. There was no information about any casualty.
Mr Zelensky was greeted outside the ICC building by the President of the Court, Piotr Hofmanski of Poland. Staff crowded windows to catch a glimpse of Mr Zelensky’s arrival, and a Ukrainian flag was raised outside the building next to the court’s own flag.
ICC judges announced last month that they had found “reasonable grounds to believe” that Mr Putin and his commissioner for children’s rights were responsible for illegal deportations and transfers of children from Ukraine’s occupied territories to Russia .
But Mr Putin’s chances of going on trial in The Hague are slim. The court does not have a police force to execute its warrants, and the Russian leader is unlikely to travel to any of the ICC’s 123 member states, which are bound to arrest him if they can .
The ICC said in a March 18 statement that Mr. Putin was “allegedly responsible for the war crime of illegal deportation of children and illegal transfer of (children) from the occupied territories of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.”
ICC prosecutor Karim Khan has made repeated visits to Ukraine and is setting up an office in Kiev to facilitate his ongoing investigation.
However, the ICC does not have the authority to prosecute Mr Putin for aggression – an illegal invasion of another sovereign country. The Dutch government has offered to host a court that could be set up to try the crime of aggression and an office is being set up to collect evidence.
Eurojust, the European Union’s judicial cooperation agency, said in February that the new International Center for the Prosecution of Offensive Crimes should be operational by the summer.
The Netherlands has been a strong supporter of the Ukrainian war effort since Russia’s invasion last year. In military equipment the government of Prime Minister Mark Rutte has promised that it is buying 14 modern Leopard 2 tanks together with Denmark. Their delivery is expected next year.
The Netherlands also joined forces with Germany and Denmark to buy at least 100 old Leopard 1 tanks for Ukraine.
In addition to other military hardware, it also sent two Patriot air defense missile systems and pledged to send two naval minehunter ships as well as military forensic experts to assist with war crime investigations.
Mr Zelensky’s visit came on a day the Dutch remember their war dead.
Questions are being raised over Russia’s claim that it foiled a Ukrainian drone attack on the Kremlin early Wednesday.
Mr Putin was not in the Kremlin at the time and was at his Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, Mr Peskov told Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti.
There was no independent verification of the alleged attack. Russian officials said it happened overnight but offered no supporting evidence. Questions also arose as to why it took hours for the Kremlin to be informed of the incident and why the videos only emerged later in the day.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the US was “unable to verify the authenticity” of Russia’s claims of the Ukrainian attack on Moscow. Asked whether the US believed Mr Putin was a legitimate target of any potential Ukrainian attack, Ms Jean-Pierre said that since the start of the conflict, the US “encouraged Ukraine to attack beyond its borders”. or was not enabling.”
Asked whether the US was concerned that the allegations could be a false flag campaign by Russia to pretext for more aggressive military action on Ukraine, Ms Jean-Pierre said she did not want to speculate, but added, Obviously Russia has a history of doing things like this.”
Russian media said on Thursday that two Russian oil facilities in the country’s southern regions near Ukraine were attacked by drones in what appeared to be a series of attacks on fuel depots behind enemy lines.
Russian state news agency RIA Novosti, citing law enforcement sources, reported that four drones attacked an oil refinery in the Krasnodar region, which borders the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula. Another facility was reportedly affected in the neighboring Rostov region.