As part of his official visit to the Kingdom of the Netherlands, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi met with the President of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Piotr Hofmanski and Court Secretary Osvaldo Zavala Aguilar.
The head of state emphasized that bringing to justice all those guilty of war crimes against humanity and genocide of the Ukrainian people is a matter of principle for Ukraine.
“For us, the result is exclusively concrete sentences for all Russian war criminals, including the highest leadership of the aggressor country,” Volodymyr Zelenskyi said.
He highly appreciated the work of the International Criminal Court in this direction, in particular noting the importance of the decision to issue arrest warrants for the President and the Commissioner for Children’s Rights of the aggressor state on charges of deportation of Ukrainian children.
“These crimes require special, priority attention. We must increase the pressure on Russia to stop mass deportations and create a universal mechanism for the protection of children,” said the Head of State.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy particularly noted the level of cooperation between the International Criminal Court and national law enforcement agencies and added that Ukraine has done and will do everything necessary both for the investigation and prosecution within the national jurisdiction for the mass atrocities committed by the Russian Federation during this war, and for the establishment of effective cooperation with the International Criminal Court .
The President noted the importance of opening a branch of the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in Kyiv in the near future, which will contribute to the further strengthening of the relevant cooperation.
Volodymyr Zelenskyi separately raised the issue of the importance of comprehensive work of our state, which is carried out with the aim of creating institutional boundaries for bringing to justice those guilty of the crime of aggression against Ukraine.