Washington (EFE)
“To date, we have registered close to 80,000 cases of war crimes. The evidence of these crimes, however, is growing exponentially,” said Kostin, who appeared before the US House of Representatives Foreign Committee and explained that evidence against 152 war criminals has been documented.
Kostin described what is happening in Ukraine as “genocide” since there are “clear signs” of persecution “against Ukrainians as a national group”, with “particular patterns of genocide”.
Before the members of the Lower House, the prosecutor pointed out that the “joint responsibility” of the international community is “to do everything possible to discover the horrible crimes that Russia is committing in Ukraine.”
Although “the exposure is not enough to ensure that this never happens again and to provide justice for the victims and survivors.”
US support for Ukraine
Kostin asks that the United States not only continue to support Ukraine militarily but also cooperate to strengthen the mechanisms so that “all those who orchestrated and allowed the commission of crimes” are held accountable.
It would be essential for the US to help Ukraine in “various legislative initiatives”, such as condemning the illegal kidnapping of children from Ukraine to Russia (about 20,000).
Also the designation of the Wagner mercenary group as a foreign terrorist organization.
The authorization to the Department of Justice to transfer to the Department of State the proceeds of the assets seized to provide assistance to Ukraine.
Or the creation of a special Court to punish war crimes.
“We believe that the court should be based on the resolution of the UN General Assembly that will authorize the Secretary General to conduct negotiations on the conclusion of a corresponding agreement between the UN and Ukraine,” Kostin detailed.
More help for Ukraine
Although the Republican Party has supported sending aid to Ukraine, hard-line conservatives oppose further aid to the country.
While some voices have publicly demanded in recent months -among them the leader of the Lower House, Kevin McCarthy- that it is not a blank check.
However, in the committee the voices to continue supporting the country were in the majority.
“The free world cannot sit idly by and allow this to happen. It is time for this Administration, along with our allies, to provide Ukraine with the weapons it needs to win,” said Republican Congressman Michael McCaul.
As chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, he opened the session by asking the Joe Biden government to report to Congress “on the United States’ response to the war crimes being committed in Ukraine.”
In a harsh tone and after several questions from congressmen, Kostin stated that “no country can remain neutral in the face of such evil” and that “the free world must not tolerate genocide.”
“It is not just a Russian war against Ukraine, it is a global war. I don’t know of any country that doesn’t feel the consequences,” she stated.
Survivor Testimonials
Two survivors of the war offered testimony at the hearing, including a 57-year-old woman whose town had fallen into Russian hands.
“They detained me for five days, they beat me, they forced me to undress, they cut my body with a knife and they threatened to rape and kill me. They even put a gun to my head and pretended they were executing me and forced me to dig my own grave”, the woman recounted.
After his release, he reached Ukrainian territory thanks to the help of some friends.
Later, he joined the Uniting for Ukraine program, which offers a humanitarian visa to Ukrainians who have relatives in the country.
“Stripping children of their identity”
Another woman also spoke, telling the story of Roman, a teenager sent to a re-education camp.
Where he was subjected to an intense brainwashing attempt with propaganda videos. He was going to be transferred to a new Russian family assigned to him but he managed to escape.
A common practice that, according to the woman, seeks to “strip children of their Ukrainian identity.”
According to Kostin, what these people described “are not an abnormality or an exception.”
Rather, “such behavior is a characteristic of Russian military and political doctrine and the ‘modus operandi’ of the Russian Armed Forces and their representatives.”
The entry Ukraine has documented 80,000 cases of Russian war crimes was first published in EFE Noticias.