MOSCOW, August 8. /TASS/. The Russian Council of Bloggers together with Donetsk’s Circle of Kindness charity foundation have appealed to the International Criminal Court demanding to hold Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky responsible for shelling attacks on schools and kindergartens in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), the council’s co-founder Viktoriya Rashina told TASS.
"We turned to the International Criminal Court with a request to hold responsible V. Zelensky, former Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces V. Zaluzhny as well as ex-Ukrainian Defense Minister A. Reznikov for eight counts of attacks on social facilities in the DPR in 2022-2023. We prepared an appeal to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on initiating court proceedings and further submission to the Pre-Trial Chamber," she said. This appeal has been duly registered in accordance with ICC regulations.
According to the document, made available to TASS, from 2014 until now, while conducting military actions, Ukraine has been using arms against civilians, including children. As lawyer Valeriya Rytvina, the founder of the Council of Bloggers told TASS, her organization is asking to launch a criminal investigation into eight episodes of attacks on kindergartens and schools. "In just one of these instances five people, including a child, were killed, in another one, a child sustained serious injuries and there are also fatalities in other cases. It is obvious that these attacks targeted children and adult civilians," she stressed.
The activist said that, according to the Rome Statute (the ICC’s main normative document - TASS), the actions by Zelensky, Reznikov and Zaluzhny constitute genocide and other war crimes. The ICC now must provide an exact assessment of their actions.