Only Kremlin apologists and those ignoring facts fail to see evidence of Russian war crimes - expert

Ukraine has already collected a significant amount of evidence of Russian war crimes committed since the invasion.

That’s according to Eugene Vindman, a U.S.-based expert on national security and international law, who spoke in an interview with Ukrinform.

“I think that unless you're an apologist for Russia or want to ignore the facts, it (Russia’s involvement in war crimes - ed.) is obvious or will become obvious once these cases are brought before court of law where there's a standard of proof beyond reasonable doubt, where you have adequate defense attorneys and prosecutors in the contested environment. It will be clear that the Russians are the ones that have committed these crimes,” Vindman said.

“What the Russians committed in Bucha and Irpin, and many other parts of the country was outright murder. They indiscriminately target civilians and civilian objects, which is a violation of law of war., ”the expert added.

Windman said he has been working with an inter-institutional group involving prosecutors, military experts, intelligence services, the SBU, and the National Police.

The group is working “to identify not only the initial perpetrator, the one who fired the bullet, but also the chain of command, which is the important thing in war crimes. It's a whole command responsible for giving illegal, unlawful orders," said Eugene Vindman.

The expert stressed that, despite some complications related to the use by both parties of the same types of weapons systems in certain cases, "for experienced war crime investigators and police services it's not that difficult to figure things out."

As reported earlier, the UN International Commission for Investigation of Violations in Ukraine has documented further evidence that the Russian authorities had committed indiscriminate attacks and war crimes in the form of torture, rape, and other sexual violence, as well as deportation of children to the Russian Federation.

According to the Prosecutor General of Ukraine Andriy Kostin, Ukrainian law enforcement are championing investigation of environmental crimes as war crimes. Kostin also reported that prosecutors and experts with the International Criminal Court were investigating a number of war crimes committed by Russian military in Ukraine against the environment.