Kravchenko sends ICC prosecutor's office materials on deportation and detention of Ukrainian prisoners in Russia

Prosecutor General of Ukraine Ruslan Kravchenko said he has sent the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) a new package of materials on the deportation and illegal detention in Russia of over 1,800 Ukrainian prisoners from Kherson and Mykolaiv regions during the occupation of the respective areas.

"In November 2022, Russian forces forcibly transferred these people through occupied Crimea to penal colonies in Russia. The evidence proves that this was a pre-planned operation: from the seizure of Ukrainian prisons to the detention of people on the territory of the aggressor state. In Russian penal colonies, Ukrainian prisoners are beaten, tortured, subjected to psychological pressure, threatened with execution and forced to build enemy military fortifications. Russian citizenship is forcibly imposed on them, they are illegally held after their sentences expire or re-detained," Kravchenko wrote on Telegram on Thursday.

He stressed that such actions by the occupiers constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity under international humanitarian law.

"The materials submitted to the ICC are based on testimonies from over 400 victims and witnesses, as well as analysis of Russian court rulings, official documents, responses from Russian state bodies and other evidence," the prosecutor general said.

According to Kravchenko, the submission to the ICC became possible thanks to the active stance and expert work of the NGO Zakhyst Viazniv Ukrainy, the European Prison Litigation Network and the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group. He described this as an example of coordination between state bodies and the human rights community.