THE HAGUE, July 3. /TASS/. The International Centre for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression Against Ukraine started operations in the Hague on Monday.

The European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation, also known as Eurojust, held a grand opening ceremony for the center.

Eurojust President Ladislav Hamran said the organization helped create a joint investigation team to prosecute international crimes committed in Ukraine, and also helped create a database of evidence of the most serious international crimes. Setting up the center was an important next step in these efforts.

He described the center as a unique platform for international cooperation, with no precedents in history. Hamran said the center will support national investigators and prosecutors from Ukraine, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Poland who are investigating the crime of aggression. They will receive all necessary analytical, legal, financial and logistical support, he said.

The main goal of the center will be to collect key evidence, analyze it and identify possible gaps. The process requires a serious effort, Hamran said. The first thing is to prove the crime of aggression itself, he said. This can be done by gathering evidence of bombings, port blockades, military actions on the ground, on the water and in the air, the official continued. The attacks also need to be linked to certain people who occupy positions of power in the political or military hierarchy, he said.

The materials collected by the center, together with other data, are supposed to eventually become the basis for a criminal case to prosecute the crimes of aggression in Ukraine in a special tribunal or one of the existing international judicial bodies.

European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders said the center has two main goals. The first one is to bring to justice all those responsible for the conflict in Ukraine. The second one is for Russia to pay for the reconstruction of Ukraine.