Ukraine prosecutor says it has documented 34,000 war crimes, including genocide

Ukraine’s top prosecutor on Sunday said his office has documented 34,000 potential war crimes throughout the ongoing conflict with Russia and is mounting a case on genocide.  

“We have a case on genocide in the Office of the Prosecutor General, and we are all the time in communication with International Criminal Court … We understand that all of these facts put together will lead us to possible a conviction in crime of genocide,” Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin told host Margaret Brennan on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”  

Kostin said the Ukraine office is in communication with the International Criminal Court’s lead prosecutor, Karim Khan. 

The Ukrainian prosecutor acknowledged the challenges of any attempt to prosecute Russian President Vladimir Putin, a sitting leader, for genocide, but said that “we know who is responsible” for “the crime of aggression.” 

“The crime of aggression is the mother of all of these crimes — of war crimes, genocide — because without aggression, there will be no other war crimes. And for that reason, for the crime of aggression, the highest [political] and military leadership should be prosecuted and should be punished,” Kostin said. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of genocide after graphic footage and reports of violence in Bucha, a town northwest of Kyiv. Zelensky praised President Biden after the U.S. leader followed suit and called Russia’s actions genocide. 

No sitting leader has ever been prosecuted for genocide.  

The Prosecutor General’s office is also sifting through the 34,000 possible war crimes, prioritizing cases in the Kharkiv region, Kostin said Sunday.  

He called the “horrible amount of potential war crimes” part of a “a system” of Russian aggression against Moscow-occupied territory.