Ukraine’s Attorney General Andriy Kostin said on Wednesday that 80,000 cases of war crimes have been documented and that they are growing exponentially. after several cities that were under Russian rule have been released in the last few months
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“To date, we have registered close to 80,000 cases of war crimes. The evidence of these crimes, however, is growing exponentially,” said Kostin, who appeared before the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the United States House of Representatives.
These acts are not random or spontaneous. They are part of the Kremlin’s widespread and systematic attack on the civilian population of Ukraine.
Before the members of the Lower House, the prosecutor pointed out that the “joint responsibility” of the international community is “to do everything possible to discover the horrible crimes that Russia is committing in Ukraine”, although “exposure is not enough to ensure this never happens again and to bring justice to victims and survivors.”
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Kostin called for the United States not only to continue to support Ukraine militarily but also to cooperate so that the mechanisms are strengthened so that “all those who orchestrated and enabled the commission of crimes” be held accountable.
Thus, it would be essential for the United States to help Ukraine in “various legislative initiatives”, such as the condemnation of illegal kidnapping of children from Ukraine to Russia (about 20,000).
Also the designation of Wagner mercenary group as a foreign terrorist organizationto; authorizing the Justice Department to transfer to the State Department the proceeds of seized assets to provide assistance to Ukraine; or the creation of a special Court to punish war crimes.
They detained me for five days, beat me, forced me to undress, cut my body with a knife, and threatened to rape and kill me.
“I understand that the United States Congress has considered new amendments to the penal code to include a new provision criminalizing Crimes against humanitywhich would prevent impunity for such crimes when the perpetrators appear on American soil,” Kostin recalled.
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When the United States “takes the lead on these issues,” he added, “the world watches and is emboldened by our own efforts to obtain international justice”.
Survivor Testimonials
At the hearing, two survivors of the war offered their testimony, among them a 57-year-old woman whose city fell into Russian hands and spent a year trying to survive only to be later arrested and subjected to torture for several days.
“They detained me for five days, they beat me, They forced me to undress, cut my body with a knife and threatened to rape and kill me. They even put a gun to my head and pretended they were executing me and they forced me to dig my own grave“, said the woman.
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It is a moral duty to return all children home
After being released, she managed to reach Ukrainian territory thanks to the help of some friends and later joined the Uniting for Ukraine program, which offers a humanitarian visa to Ukrainians who have relatives in the country.
“We need the United States to continue to give Ukraine military aid, and we also need help to execute those who committed those crimes,” the woman stated.
They made me dig my own grave
Another woman also spoke, telling the story of Roman, a teenager who was sent to a re-education camp, where he was subjected to an intense brainwashing attempt with propaganda videos.
He was to be transferred to a new Russian family assigned to him but managed to escape. A common practice that, according to the woman denounced, seeks “strip children of their Ukrainian identity”.
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“I call on the international community to take steps together to put more pressure on the aggressor country to make them return all Ukrainian children to Ukraine. It is a moral duty to return all children home,” he said.
According to Kostin, what these people described “they are not an abnormality or an exception” but “such behavior is a characteristic of military doctrine and Russian policy and the ‘modus operandi’ of the Russian Armed Forces and their representatives”.
“Russia has committed crimes against humanity in Ukraine and, I quote, these acts are not random or spontaneous. They are part of the attack widespread and systematic attack by the Kremlin against the civilian population of Ukraine“, he claimed.
EFE
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