Trigger warning: war crimes, child sexual abuse
Amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, one of the first massacres took place in the city of the Bucha, a town on the outskirts of Kyiv in March, 2022.
More than 1,300 bodies have been recovered from Bucha and its surrounding areas, according to authorities. The death toll also includes 31 children.
Photographs and video evidence shows corpses of civilians lined up with their hands against their backs. They have been shot at point-blank range, giving proof to the height of violence taking place in Ukraine.
Many bodies have also been found mutilated and burnt, while girls as young as 14 have reportedly been raped by Russian soldiers.
The massacre is proof that Russia should be held accountable for war crimes in Ukraine, as the nation seeks justice in front of the International Criminal Court (ICC) asking it to investigate what happened in Bucha, as a part of a series of Russian war crimes being committed.
However, Russian authorities have claimed that Ukraine faked the footage of the events and deemed the massacre as “fake news”. Meanwhile, media organizations and eye-witness accounts show the truth behind the mass murders that happened in Bucha.
Ukraine states that it has identified more than 21,000 possible war crimes, which includes the Russian strike on a theatre in Mariupol in March which appears to be the first confirmed location of a mass killing. Ukraine also previously called Russia’s air strikes on Mariupol’s hospital a war crime.
Investigations taking place
To investigate the assertions made by Ukraine, the ICC sent out a team of investigators and forensic experts to the country. While the ICC can prosecute individual war criminals who arenot before the courts of individual states, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) can rule against Russia as Ukraine has begun a case against the country.
The UN Security Council would be responsible for enforcing that rule, but Russia which is one of the council’s five permanent members can veto any proposal to sanction the rule.
Legal barriers to prosecute Russia
British lawyer Karim Khan, the ICC’s chief prosecutor believes that there is reasonable basis that war crimes have been carried out in Ukraine. If there is evidence, Khan will ask ICC judges to issue arrest warrants to bring individuals for trial in The Hague.
The court relies on individual states to arrest suspects, but since Russia is not a member of the court it is unlikely to extradite any suspects. This can be a barrier to prosecute or hold Russia accountable for the grievous crimes.
One of the only ways to incriminate the country
However, legally speaking, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine constitutes the crime of aggression under international law which is similar to the charges against senior leaders at the Nuremberg trials. The 1945 United Nations charter further embeds the illegality of aggressive war as opposed to defensive war.
Based on this, experts want world leaders to set up a one-off tribunal to prosecute the crime of aggression in Ukraine, rather than letting Russia take advantage of its veto power in the UN Security Council.