ICC’s team leaves to investigate war crimes in Ukraine

An advance team left the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague for "the Ukraine region" on Thursday to start investigating possible war crimes.

That’s according to Reuters, referring to the ICC’s top prosecutor.

“Their departure came hours after Prosecutor Karim Khan said he would start collecting evidence as part of a formal investigation launched after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine that began on Feb. 24,” the report reads.

"Yesterday I formulated a team and today they are moving to the region," Khan said. 

Khan said his office would be examining possible war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide – the offences under the court's jurisdiction – by all parties in the conflict.

The ICC, which has 123 member states, prosecutes individuals responsible for the worst atrocities when a country is unable or unwilling to do so.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, the work on collecting evidence in the case of the Russian attack on Ukraine has officially been launched.

The ICC has received an appeal from 39 member states to investigate the situation in Ukraine over the Russian invasion.