Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin called on the International Criminal Court to investigate alleged war crimes in the east of the country controlled by pro-Russian separatists and Crimea, which was annexed by Russia last year.
The ICC is already investigating reports of crimes committed in Ukraine from November 2013 to February 2014, after the Ukrainian government granted permission to the court. Mr Klimkin’s call for broadening the investigation though, could see reports of Russian involvement in the fighting officially investigated for the first time.
Speaking to Reuters before meeting the court's president and prosecutor on Friday, Mr Klimkin said an ICC referral would cover "everything under the (ICC) mandate, including crimes against humanity”.
He went on to specifically highlight an attack on the port of Mariupol in eastern Ukraine, which saw 30 people killed in January.
"The shelling killed, in seconds, more than 30 people and heavily wounded 100 people," Klimkin said. "If you deliberately shell and, I stress, deliberately shell cities, killing civilians, it's a completely different situation (from military operations) and we have to engage the ICC."
Commenting on Mr Klimkin’s interview, Alex Whiting, a former senior ICC prosecutor, said,
"Here (Crimea and eastern Ukraine) there have been widespread allegations of war crimes and even crimes against humanity, so it will be much harder to ignore".
See more from Reuters here.