Russian soldiers, commanders to be held accountable for executing POWs - Ukraine’s top prosecutor

Those who murdered Ukrainian prisoners of war, as well as their commanders who either issued orders or failed to interfere, will be held accountable for these war crimes.

Prosecutor General of Ukraine Andriy Kostin stressed this in Brussels on Tuesday as part of a round table on bringing Russia to justice for crimes committed in Ukraine, hosted by the European Policy Center.

Kostin answered an Ukrinform correspondent’s question about the response to the latest flagrant crimes of Russian invaders, who are systematically killing Ukrainian prisoners of war.

"Indeed, we are seeing more and more cases of execution of our prisoners of war. This is a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law, it’s a war crime. We are investigating such cases, and in some of them we have already identified the perpetrators... Not only do we bring to justice direct executioners, we also establish a chain of command – those who gave orders for the execution of POWs or did not interfere with such actions by their subordinates. All of that also constitutes a war crime," said the Prosecutor General of Ukraine

He noted that this behavior by Russian invaders is part of a general trend observed during Russia's aggressive war against Ukraine. When perpetrators are identified, they are held accountable, even in their physical absence. That’s because the victims of these crimes, their families, cannot wait decades for these criminals to fall into the hands of Ukrainian justice. Justice cannot wait, it has no statute of limitations. So all the verdicts passed against murderers will be executed.

As reported, today the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Andriy Kostin, is visiting Brussels. In the format of an informal lunch within the framework of the EU Council of Ministers for Justice and Home Affairs, he will meet with the justice ministers from the member states to discuss further joint efforts to hold Russia accountable for crimes committed in Ukraine, as well as the creation of an International Tribunal to prosecute the Russian leadership for the crime of aggression.