Justice secretary Dominic Raab has said that the UK is forming plans to identify and track down Russian commanders suspected of committing war crimes in Ukraine, the Telegraph reports.
Raab told the newspaper that he was also in talks with foreign secretary Liz Truss over how the UK could work to collate evidence that would help put those culpable of war crimes on trial.
The justice secretary said: “It is important to lay down a marker now and puncture the perception of impunity.
“What we really want to do is get this message to Putin but also any commander in the field who may be thinking about what he is going to do with an illegal order that may cause him to commit war crimes.
“They need to know there is a very real chance that they will face the dock of a court in The Hague and a jail cell. That's why we will support the International Criminal Court, technically but also in terms of any other ways.”
The International Criminal Court has confirmed that an investigation into potential war crimes committed in Ukraine will be launched after 39 countries, including the UK, supported it.
This news comes after prime minister Boris Johnson accused Russian president Vladimir Putin of committing war crimes, during Wednesday’s Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons.
The PM told the chamber: “What we have seen already from Vladimir Putin's regime in the use of the munitions that they have already been dropping on innocent civilians, in my view, already fully qualifies as a war crime.”
Johnson went on to label the attacks “abhorrent”, adding that he would publish a “full list” of Putin’s close contacts as MPs demand further sanctions against oligarchs.
Speaking in Tallinn, Estonia alongside NATO allies, the UK defence secretary Ben Wallace suggested that it would be almost impossible to maintain a “normal relationship” with the Russian government “unless Putin chooses to cease what he is doing” and withdraws Russian forces from Ukraine.
Wallace explained that it would be a challenge for the entire international community to engage with Putin and his government following an assault on a sovereign state “at huge scale, inflicting huge damage and violence”.
The defence secretary also expressed concerns over Russia’s use of thermobaric bombs in the ongoing conflict and how much further Russia’s armed forces may be willing to go with its use of weaponry, adding that the consequences of the war in Ukraine would “ripple through Europe and NATO for not just weeks, but months and years to come.”
Elsewhere, the Telegraph has reported that the government could ask British athletes to boycott the Winter Paralympics which start on Friday, if Russian athletes are still allowed to participate in the games.
The International Paralympic Committee indicated on Wednesday that Russian and Belarussian athletes would still be allowed to compete under the Paralympic flag.
Photo by Gayatri Malhotra on Unsplash
