Norwegian MP urges international tribunal to consider whether Russian strikes on infrastructure constitute genocide

Russian strikes on critical infrastructure in Ukraine are war crimes, and the International Criminal Court must decide whether such actions constitute genocide.

Asmund Aukrust, member of the Norwegian Parliament (Storting), Speaker of the Labor Party for Foreign Relations, stated this in a commentary to Guildhall, Ukrinform reports.

“I condemn the dreadful Russian strikes on critical infrastructure in Ukraine in the absolute strongest terms. I do believe the attacks should be labeled as war crimes. Yet, in line with the UN Genocide Convention and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, I do believe that a court of law needs to decide whether the attacks constitute a genocide,” the legislator said.

Earlier, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba, speaking at a briefing for foreign media, called on the international community to consider attacks on the energy infrastructure of our country part of the Russian genocide of the Ukrainian people.

A number of foreign politicians and lawmakers also made statements admitting that Russian attacks against critical infrastructure facilities are war crimes and part of the genocide of the Ukrainian people, which can result in thousands of civilian deaths.

British lawmaker from the House of Commons Roger Gale shared the idea that the Russian strikes targeting Ukraine’s crucial infrastructure are “war crimes.”

 “Russian strikes on critical infrastructure, throughout Ukraine, it is tantamount to a genocide and may yet turn into a genocide of Ukrainians,” he stressed. In turn,

Lithuanian legislator Paulius Saudargas said Lithuania was one of the first countries to recognize Russia’s war against Ukraine “as a genocide and the atrocities committed by Russian army as war crimes.”

French Member of European Parliament Stéphane Séjourné, who chairs a Renew Europe Group, says Russia’s strikes targeting Ukraine’s critical infrastructure constitute a war crime, which must be investigated, while the international community must take seriously Kyiv’s claims of an ongoing genocide of Ukrainians by the Russian forces.

Member of the Czech Parliament, member of the Committee on Economic Issues, Tomáš Müller, said: “Russian strikes on Ukraine's critical infrastructure are a form of genocide and war crimes,” the lawmaker said.