Russia has charged 92 members of Ukraine’s military high command with crimes against humanity, according to Alexander Bastrykin, head of Russia’s Investigative Committee.
In total, Moscow has opened more than 1,300 criminal cases against Ukraine’s military and political leadership, Bastrykin said in an interview with government news site Rossiyskaya Gazeta published Monday. He did not name any of those charged.
CNN has not independently verified the claims made by Bastrykin.
“In the course of the preliminary investigation, more than 220 people have been identified as involved in crimes against the peace and security of humanity that do not have a statute of limitations, including representatives of the high command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as well as commanders of military units that fired at civilians,” Bastrykin told Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
“A total of 92 commanders and their subordinates have been charged. 96 people were put on the wanted list, in particular 51 commanders of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” he said.
The head of the Investigative Committee also suggested creating a separate international tribunal for crimes in Ukraine.
“Taking into account the position of the ‘collective West,’ which openly sponsors Ukrainian nationalism and supports the Kyiv regime, the creation of such a tribunal under the auspices of the UN in the current perspective is extremely doubtful,” he said.
“The establishment of the court and its charter could be formalized by an agreement between Russia, the member countries of these organizations, the Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics.”
Some background: Bastrykin’s claims come as Ukraine is investigating more than 20,000 war crimes, according to now former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova.
Venediktova had previously said that Ukraine has identified more than 600 Russian war crime suspects and has started prosecuting around 80 of them. Two Russian soldiers have already been convicted under Ukrainian criminal law.
Earlier this month, prosecutors from Ukraine and the International Criminal Court (ICC) met in The Hague to share expertise on investigating global war crimes and apply it to the atrocities committed in Ukraine.
ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan had called Ukraine a “crime scene” after visiting the Ukrainian towns of Bucha and Borodianka in April, where mass graves and murdered civilians were discovered following the Russian withdrawal.
