Tuesday, 21 March ‘23
This week’s overview of key events and links to essential reading.
Also see
Does Ukraine Need a New Tribunal or a Stronger ICC?
Legal experts note that the task ahead is on a monumental scale, with the Hague-based body already in a sensitive position.
Ukraine: Covering My Own Kidnapping
A year after his detention, a Ukrainian journalist sees those who ordered his abuse face trial.
Ukraine: From Traffic Accidents to War Crimes
How regional police department had to pivot to deal with influx of with some 10,000 cases.
Pilot Who Bombed Kharkiv TV Tower Convicted
However, as a valuable exchange asset, Maksim Krishtop will not spend time in prison.
Tuesday, 21 March ‘23
This week’s overview of key events and links to essential reading.
ICC Issues Putin Arrest Warrant
The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Russian president Vladimir Putin and Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, the presidential commissioner for children’s rights, over the forcible deportation of children from Ukraine’s occupied areas.
According to the court, “there are reasonable grounds to believe that each suspect bears responsibility for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population and that of unlawful transfer of population from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation, in prejudice of Ukrainian children”.
Moscow, which is not part of the ICC, dismissed the decision as meaningless.
Russian Soldier Reported in Absentia for Shooting Civilian
Ukrainian police investigators reported in absentia Russian soldier Sayan Ilyarov for suspicion of violation of the laws and customs of war in combination with intentional murder by a group of persons (Part 2 of Article 28, Part 2 of Article 438 of the criminal code).
According to the investigation, in March 2022, Corporal Ilyarov, who hails from Russia’s eastern republic of Buryata, and other Russian soldiers was ordered by an unidentified commander to shoot at all civilian cars and personnel as they patrolled the village of Berezivka, in Kyiv region. On March 2 as he served at a checkpoint, Ilyarov, together with unidentified Russian military personnel, shot a Peugeot car 308 with a sniper rifle, firing at least 21 shots.
The driver survived but was injured. The soldiers pulled him out of the car, put a tourniquet on his leg and tried to interrogate him. Due to the injury, the man could not answer. Russian soldiers then hit him with the butt of a machine gun, and Ilyarov killed with a shot to the head. The Russian soldeirs then hid the corpse in a sewer on the side of the road connecting Kyiv to Zhytomyr, near the gas station of the village of Buzova.
War Crimes Against Journalists Investigated
Ukraine’s National Police is investigating the death of six journalists who died when rocket fire hit the television tower in Kyiv on 1 March 2022.
Maksym Tsutskiridze, head of the national police’s main investigation department, said that since the beginning of Russia’s invasion 29 journalists had been killed, with 17 injured and 12 taken captive in the occupied territory of Ukraine.
Minister in Occupied Kherson Accused of Deportation of Children
The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) reported Russian citizen Timur Khudoyarov with the suspicion of facilitating the unlawful deportation of children from Ukraine to the Russian Federation and re-organising the transport system in the Kherson region to provide for the needs of Russia's military groups on the southern front.
Khudoyarov was appointed de facto “minister of transport of the Kherson region of the Russian Federation” in the occupied Ukrainian region.
He is accused of being one of the organisers of the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia under the guise of trips to children's camps. In addition, under his orders, Ukrainian grain was exported by sea cargo to the Russia.
Khudoyarov, currently in the occupied port city of Skadovsk in Kherson region, is accused of actions aimed at the violent change or overthrow of the constitutional order or at the seizure of state power (Part 1 of Article 109 of the criminal code) and illegal crossing of the state border of Ukraine with the aim of harming the interests of the state (under Part 1 of Article 332-2).
Indictment Against Former Ukrainian Officer in Crimea
Employees of the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) completed a special pre-trial investigation and sent an indictment to the court against the former commander of the engineering support group from Crimea, who is accused of treason following his allegiance to the Russian Federation in 2014.
According to the investigation, the accused, who has not been named, is currently serving as part of Russia’s “International Mine Countermeasures Centre of the Armed Forces”, in a role which includes engineering support for occupation troops, such as the replacement of infrastructure facilities, administrative and civilian buildings.
He is accused of using demining equipment to attack both the Ukrainian military and civilians; in particular, according to operational data, he was behind the use of the UR-77 Meteorit armed vehicles in the city of Mariupol.
