Zelensky: Ukraine, EU to search for criminals who tortured people during occupation

05.04.2022 11:56

Ukrinform

Ukraine starts to gather information on all those involved in the torture of the Ukrainian people in the territories that were temporarily occupied by Russian troops.

"There is also our internal case concerning the criminals who tortured our people. We start to gather information. We will search for all those people," President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with Ukrainian media outlets, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

In addition, the President of Ukraine informed that he had agreed on the formation of a joint investigation team with the European Union. According to him, prosecutors of different countries together with Ukrainian law enforcement agencies will investigate these crimes.

A procedure will be drafted to find and punish those criminals who committed atrocities in Ukraine, the President explained.

"We will draft a procedure to find and punish those who committed atrocities in Ukraine. We will draft this procedure, there will be an action plan. I don't think there are any secrets here. We will do it openly, so it makes no sense to keep secret how we will find these criminals," he said, answering questions about the released lists of those who committed crimes, particularly in Kyiv region.

Zelensky said that a special commission would be set up, involving the Prosecutor General of Ukraine and a person from the President's Office. "Because it is very important for me to receive information on how this process is going on... I do not want this issue to be resolved in 20 years. I think that the mechanism that will be found will be very effective," the Head of State said.

At the same time, the President stressed that no one was interested in delaying this process. "Unfortunately, there is a lot of evidence of crimes, and they will appear further," Zelensky added. In this context, he mentioned Melitopol, Izium, and other towns. "We do not even imagine what has been going on there," the President summed up.

As reported, on April 2, Irpin, Bucha, Hostomel towns and the entire Kyiv region were liberated from Russian invaders. Mass killings of civilians by Russian invaders have been recorded in liberated towns and villages.

Among the already found victims of Russian war crimes are raped women whose bodies they tried to burn, local government officials killed, children, the elderly, and men. Many have their hands tied, there are traces of torture, and many people had been shot in the back of the head.