Putin and Russia’s assault on Ukraine meets the definition of war crimes, but the framework to thwart him isn’t strong enough to halt his invasion, observers say.
- Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the overnight attack on Kharkiv “a war crime.”
- The chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court said he plans to open an investigation “as rapidly as possible” into possible war crimes in Ukraine.
- “Is Vladimir Putin committing a war crime? Yes. It’s very clear,” said one retired international war crimes prosecutor.
WASHINGTON – Russian troops have killed hundreds of civilians, including more than a dozen children, and shelled apartment buildings and neighborhoods in their assault on Ukraine, realities that qualify Russian President Vladimir Putin as a war criminal, observers say.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described Putin’s overnight attack on the residential center of Ukraine’s second-largest city as “frank, undisguised terror. Nobody will forgive. Nobody will forget. This attack on Kharkiv is a war crime.”