MOSCOW, January 20. /TASS/. Those guilty of killing civilians in Ukraine’s south-east are to face trials at international courts, Russia’s Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said on Tuesday.
Russia cannot remain indifferent while observing the crimes which have been committed in Ukraine under the cover of the so-called anti-terrorist operation launched in April, Markin said in an interview with the Sobesednik newspaper.
Markin stressed that under the Russian Criminal Code, foreign nationals and non-citizens who do not live in Russia and committed crimes outside the country are to be liable to criminal proceedings if these crimes are aimed against the interests of the country or its citizens.
“If those who committed the crimes were not convicted in a foreign country, then this criminal responsibility will be in force under our legislation,” Markin said. “And the case is that Ukraine’s law enforcement bodies ignore these facts,” he added.
“The current authorities in Ukraine will not stay forever. Sooner or later, international courts, if not the Russian ones, will consider these actions in a process similar to that in Nuremberg,” he said.
The fact that war crimes have taken place in Ukraine was confirmed by the Human Rights Watch, which acknowledged that cluster weapons and multiple rocket launchers have been used against civilians in Ukraine’s south-east.
Besides, the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague issued a statement of the Moscow branch of the Red Cross on the crimes committed by representatives of Ukraine in Donbas, Markin said.
The conflict in eastern Ukraine has killed more than 4,800 people, and has displaced another 1.2 million people, according to the latest United Nations figures.