Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC, Hague) Fatou Bensouda announced the completion of the preliminary examination of the situation in Ukraine and that there are grounds to believe that crimes against humanity have been committed.

The corresponding statement was issued on Friday by the ICC.

"After a thorough and independent process, I can announce today that the established criteria for starting an investigation of the situation in Ukraine have been met," Bensouda said.

"Specifically, and without prejudice to any other crimes which may be identified during the course of an investigation, my Office has concluded that there is a reasonable basis at this time to believe that a broad range of conduct constituting war crimes and crimes against humanity within the jurisdiction of the Court have been committed in the context of the situation in Ukraine. These findings, which will be spelled out in more detail in our annual Report on Preliminary Examination Activities, include three broad clusters of victimisation: crimes committed in the context of the conduct of hostilities; crimes committed during detentions; and crimes committed in Crimea. My Office furthermore found that these crimes, committed by the different parties to the conflict, were also sufficiently grave to warrant investigation by my Office, both in quantitative and qualitative terms," the prosecutor said.

She said that the preliminary examination of the situation in Ukraine was opened on 24 April 2014 on the basis of an initial ad hoc declaration lodged by the Government of Ukraine accepting the jurisdiction of the Court, which was subsequently extended by a second declaration by Ukraine, lodged in 2015, to encompass ongoing alleged crimes committed on the territory of Ukraine from 20 February 2014 onwards.

Bensouda reported also that "Having examined the information available, despite the existence of information on domestic proceedings, my Office has concluded that the potential cases that would likely arise from an investigation into the situation in Ukraine would be admissible. This is because the competent authorities in Ukraine and/or the Russian Federation are either inactive in relation to the categories of persons and conduct that the Office has identified, or because the national judicial system is 'unavailable' in territory under the control of the opposing party, rendering the competent authorities unable genuinely to obtain the accused or the necessary evidence and testimony or otherwise to carry out their proceedings."

The Prosecutor said that moving forward, the next step will be to request authorisation from the Judges of the Pretrial Chamber of the Court to open investigations. 

However, she said that getting closer to the next steps concerning the situation in Ukraine, she counts on the full support of the Ukrainian authorities, and equally, she invites the cooperation of all parties to the conflict.