Charges brough by USA against four Russia-related servicemen not last one for American colleagues – Kostin
Prosecutor General of Ukraine Andriy Kostin has described the fact that the United States brought charges against four servicemen associated with Russia as a historic result and said that the American colleagues will bring new charges to Russian war criminals soon.
"The United States brought charges against four servicemen associated with Russia. This is the first in history case of bringing charges by another state which investigates into Russia's war crimes within its own jurisdiction," he told Interfax-Ukraine on Thursday.
The Prosecutor General recalled that apart from Ukraine and the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, 24 countries conduct their own investigations and collect evidence of Russia's war crimes.
"The charges brought by the American side is a historic result which became possible particularly due to our systemic cooperation with the U.S. Department of Justice," he said and expressed gratitude to the prosecutors of the Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) and investigators of the National Police who helped to collect a proper evidence base on the case.
"In the evening, after the briefing of the U.S. Department of Justice, I talked to Attorney General Merrick Garland. I thanked him for his devoted work and the historic result. We discussed our next steps," Kostin said.
"I can assure you that these were not the last charges brough against Russian war criminals by our American colleagues," he said.
The Prosecutor General also attended the hearings of the Helsinki Commission at the U.S. Congress on the Rebuilding Economic Prosperity and Opportunity for Ukrainians Act.
"This bill is very important for Ukraine as it provides for the possibility of out-of-court, i.e. administrative, confiscation of Russia's sovereign assets for payment of compensation for damage caused by the armed aggression against Ukraine. These are thousands of war crimes against Ukrainians, mass destruction of civilian facilities," he said.
Kostin emphasized that Ukraine should be restored and Ukrainians should receive compensations at the expense of the aggressor state.
"The adoption of this bill may become an example for the other countries of the world which have frozen Russian assets," he said.
