Russia charges Ukrainian army members with war crimes

Moscow has charged 92 members of the Ukrainian armed forces with crimes against humanity, the head of Russia’s investigative committee has said.

Alexander Bastrykin told government news site Rossiiskaya Gazeta that more than 1,300 criminal investigations had been launched.

He also proposed an international tribunal backed by countries including Bolivia, Iran and Syria.

Some 96 people, including 51 armed forces commanders, are wanted, he said.

The Ukrainians were involved in “crimes against the peace and security of humanity”, he told the newspaper.

The BBC has been unable to verify claims made in the interview and Kyiv has not commented.

Ukraine is also conducting its own investigations. This month, it said it was examining more than 21,000 war crimes and crimes of aggression allegedly committed by Russian forces since the start of the invasion in February.

And the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has described Ukraine as a “crime scene”, has sent a team of investigators and forensics experts there.

The Kremlin denies all war crimes, or that it has been targeting civilians. It has regularly blamed Ukraine for shelling its own infrastructure and killing its own civilians – accusations which have been widely dismissed by international leaders.

Mr Bastrykin accused the West of openly sponsoring “Ukrainian nationalism” so a UN-backed trial “is extremely doubtful”.

Moscow has repeatedly made the false claim that Ukraine is overrun by neo-Nazis as justification for what it calls a “special military operation”.

Mr Bastrykin instead proposed an international tribunal should be set up with countries that have “an independent position on the Ukrainian issue” – in particular Syria, Iran and Bolivia.

Along with hundreds of Ukrainian military and political targets, he said investigations are underway into Ukrainian health ministry employees who he accused, without providing evidence, of developing weapons of mass destruction.

Suspected mercenaries from the UK, the US, Canada, the Netherlands and Georgia are under investigation, he told the newspaper.

In June, two Britons and a Moroccan who were captured while fighting for Ukraine were sentenced to death by a Russian proxy court in eastern Ukraine.

Aiden Aslin, Shaun Pinner and Brahim Saaudun are accused of being mercenaries, but the Britons’ families have insisted they are long-serving members of the Ukrainian military.

In May, the first war crimes trial since the invasion began took place in Ukraine, where a court jailed a Russian tank commander for life for killing a civilian.