蜜芽传媒

Harrowing reports and images have emerged from places such as Bucha and Chernihiv that allegedly show the torture and executions of Ukrainian civilians by Russian forces. Accusations of war crimes have been made and evidence is being gathered by many organisations. Russia denies killing civilians, and has accused Ukraine of staging the deaths to discredit its troops.

Two former German government ministers have submitted a criminal complaint with federal prosecutors seeking the opening of a war crimes investigation against Vladimir Putin and Russian army chiefs over their actions. They have included evidence obtained by German intelligence services based on intercepted conversations between Russian soldiers in Ukraine.

Andrej Umansky, from law firm, Gazeas Nepomuck, filed the criminal complaint yesterday. He explains that the complaint has been made to help the federal prosecutions office progress the case against the Russians forces, and includes lists of the Russia units and commanders that might be involved in war crimes. He says they want to demonstrate that there are systematic attacks against Ukrainian civilians being made, and that should individual prosecutions be made, there is no time limit - so a soldier could be tried many years from now. He hopes that their actions will act as a deterrent to Russian soldiers on the ground now.

"It's important to show a signal to soldiers on the ground, who every day are standing before this decision - to commit crimes against civilians or not. I hope at least one of those soldiers might say, 'If I could be tried abroad, I should stop it.'"

Photo: Members of the Ukrainian military in Bucha, north west of Kyiv, after Russian forces had retreated Credit: EPA

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