International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Karim Khan poses during an interview with Reuters at the ICC in The Hague, Netherlands, March 3, 2022. (REUTERS/Christian Levaux/File Photo)
THE HAGUE —The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, visited Ukraine on Wednesday and held virtual meetings with President Volodymyr Zelensky, his office said.
The ICC has started a formal investigation into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine after Russia invaded its smaller neighbor on Feb. 24.
Neither Russia nor Ukraine are members of the ICC and Moscow does not recognize the tribunal, which opened in The Hague in 2002. But Ukraine has given its approval to examine alleged atrocities on its territory dating back to Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Thousands of people have been killed and several million displaced in the past three weeks during what Moscow calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.
Russia denies targetting civilians during its invasion of Ukraine and says its goal is to disarm “nationalists and neo-Nazis” there, claims Kyiv and the West say are baseless.
“I was pleased to hold important exchanges with the president while in the country,” Khan said on social media.
“We agreed all efforts are needed to ensure international humanitarian law is respected and to protect the civilian population.”
Khan was scheduled to hold a news conference from Poland later on Wednesday.
RELATED STORIES
ICC to start ‘active’ probe into war crimes in Ukraine
UK says Russian commanders will be held to account for war crimes
UK warns Putin could be tried for war crimes