Putin will be tried and prosecuted for war crimes, Ukraine's prosecutor general vows
Ukraine's prosecutor general Andriy Kostin has said Russian President Vladimir Putin will be "prosecuted and tried" for atrocities committed in Ukraine.
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00:00 The Ukrainian prosecutor general and his team are working to record and prosecute over 123,000
00:06 war crimes as part of Russia's full-scale invasion of their country. So far, 81 Russians
00:11 have been convicted. The plan is one day justice will be served to all those responsible, in
00:15 particular Vladimir Putin. It was after the liberation of Bucha in late March 22 that
00:20 Ukraine first discovered the brutal character of Russia's war, summary executions, torture,
00:25 rape, kidnapping of children.
00:28 What we understood after Kharkiv region was liberated in September 2022, we see and all
00:36 the world saw the mass graves in Izum and the same types of crimes committed in each
00:42 and every village and town of liberated Kharkiv region. And when we provide forensic researches,
00:50 we understood that these war crimes were committed not only in March of 2022, the same time they
00:58 have been committed in Bucha, but in April, May, June, July. So, Russians who also saw
01:06 what they did in Bucha, they proceed to commit the same crimes in the other parts of occupied
01:13 Ukraine. And we also understood and we have evidence that it's another units. So, it's
01:22 not about some military unit gone crazy. It's about policy. It's about pattern. The same
01:31 we saw when we liberated Kherson in November, the same types of crimes. So, the number of
01:37 torture chambers we have identified in Kherson and Kharkiv, the number of victims and survivors
01:45 of sexual violence in July 2022, when I was appointed prosecutor general, we have 44 cases,
01:53 reported cases of sexual violence during the war. Now we are investigating 274.
02:01 The other issue I wanted to ask you was the children. 19 to 20,000 children have been
02:04 abducted.
02:06 This is one of the most important tasks of us as a country. Some of them were kidnapped
02:11 from the children's facilities. Some of them were separated from their parents in infiltration
02:19 camps. Some of them were taken for this like fake vacations and never returned back to
02:26 their families. They are putting them at adoption. And this is by, you know, that this is like
02:33 erasing of all their history. And this is the most brutal.
02:38 Do you think you'll see Putin in The Hague?
02:40 I believe that our case will be prepared. And when time comes, when and if Putin will
02:50 be available, he will be prosecuted and tried by the International Criminal Court or by
02:55 special tribunal.
02:56 Okay. Prosecutor general, thank you very much for joining us on Euronews.
03:00 Thank you.
03:00 [SWOOSH]