ICC must hold Russia accountable for crimes against Ukraine’s energy system - minister

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Ukraine insists that Russia should be held accountable by the International Criminal Court for crimes against the country’s civilian energy infrastructure.

That’s according to a report published by the Ministry of Energy after a meeting between its head, German Galushchenko, and Brenda Hollis, senior legal advisor at the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.

It is noted that during the meeting, the parties discussed the preparation of the case against Russia and bringing the latter to justice for crimes against the Ukrainian civilian energy infrastructure.

Galushchenko emphasized the unprecedented nature of Russia's military aggression against Ukraine in terms of the scale of destruction caused to civilian energy facilities and violations of international law.

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The minister emphasized that, in addition to the deliberate devastation of civilian energy infrastructure, Russia is also exposing the whole world to a potential nuclear disaster. In particular, one of the massive missile attacks led to a blackout at the nuclear power plant: the power units shut down amid the emergency, switching to diesel generators - the power of the last resort.

"It was a real threat of a repeat of the Fukushima scenario and a nuclear disaster that would affect all of humanity. This is nothing but nuclear terrorism. The Russians do this deliberately as they violate all existing rules of warfare, commit crimes against humanity and humankind. The Russian Federation must be held accountable for this and face a just punishment. The threat to the whole world will remain until the Ukrainian operator regains control of the ZNPP (Zaporizhia nuclear power plant - ed.)," Galushchenko said.

As reported earlier, according to the decision of the Hague Court, the Russian Federation is obliged to pay compensation in the amount of $5 billion for the losses incurred over the seizure of Naftogaz Group’s assets in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea in 2014 when Russia illegally occupied the peninsula.