Frankfurt: Germany’s federal prosecutor has opened a probe into suspected war crimes by Russian troops since the invasion of Ukraine, authorities said on Tuesday, amid international outrage over attacks on civilians and critical infrastructure.
"We will collect and secure all evidence of war crimes," Justice Minister Marco Buschmann told the Passauer Neue Presse newspaper. Germany’s federal prosecution office in Karlsruhe has opened a so-called structural investigation to begin collecting evidence, he said.
A source in the office confirmed to AFP that a probe had been opened. Russia’s attack on Ukraine is "a serious violation of international law that cannot be justified by anything," Buschmann added.
"Possible violations of international criminal law must be consistently prosecuted." A structural investigation does not target particular suspects, but aims to gather evidence of the suspected crimes and identify the structures behind them, such as the chain of command.
Meanwhile, more than two million people have now fled Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion on February 24, according to the latest data from the United Nations on Tuesday.
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, recorded 2,011,312 refugees on its dedicated website, 276,244 more than the previous count on Monday.
UNICEF, the UN children’s agency, believes hundreds of thousands of them are youngsters.
Authorities and the UN expect the flow to intensify as the Russian army advances deeper into Ukraine, particularly as it approaches the capital, Kyiv. Before Russia invaded, more than 37 million people lived in Ukrainian territory under the control of the central government.
Besides those who have left, an unknown number have been displaced from their homes within the country. The International Organization for Migration said that 103,000 third-country nationals were among those who have fled.
"There are countless tens of thousands of others who remain in the country stranded," IOM spokesman Paul Dillon said, citing a mixture of overseas students and people who have been living or working in the country for years. Here is a breakdown of where Ukrainian refugees are, according to the UN Refugee Agency:
More than half of those who have fled Ukraine are now in Poland, with UNHCR saying on Monday 1,204,403 refugees were now in the country. The number swelled by 176,800 in 24 hours.
Poland has championed the cause of Ukrainian refugees. The government has set up reception centres and charities have mobilised in a massive aid effort, helped by the estimated 1.5 million Ukrainians already living in the EU member state.
The Polish government on Monday proposed a law making it easier for Ukrainian refugees to stay by allowing Ukrainians to remain in Poland for 18 months and renew their permit for a further 18.
Ukrainians would also be allowed to work and access both healthcare and schools. Some 210,239 people have fled Ukraine to other European countries, according to UNHCR.
Some 191,348 refugees are now in Hungary -- 10 percent of the total who have fled Ukraine. The number was up 11,185 on Monday’s figure.
The country has five border crossings with Ukraine and several border towns, including Zahony, have turned public buildings into relief centres, where Hungarian civilians are offering food or assistance.
Meantime, President Volodymyr Zelensky said he is no longer pressing for Nato membership for Ukraine, a delicate issue that was one of Russia’s stated reasons for invading its pro-Western neighbour.
In another apparent nod aimed at placating Moscow, Zelensky said he is open to "compromise" on the status of two breakaway pro-Russian territories that President Vladimir Putin recognised as independent just before unleashing the invasion on February 24.
"I have cooled down regarding this question a long time ago after we understood that ... Nato is not prepared to accept Ukraine," Zelensky said in an interview aired Monday night on ABC News.
In a related development, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, invoking the wartime defiance of British prime minister Winston Churchill, vowed Tuesday to "fight to the end" in a historic virtual speech to UK lawmakers.
"We will not give up and we will not lose," he said, recounting a day-by-day account of Russia’s invasion that dwelt on the costs in lives of civilians including Ukrainian children.
"We will fight to the end, at sea, in the air. We will continue fighting for our land, whatever the cost, in the forests, in the fields, on the shores, in the streets," he said, to a standing ovation at the end.
The speech was a conscious echo of Churchill’s landmark address to the House of Commons in June 1940, after British forces were forced to retreat from France in the face of a Nazi German onslaught.
Zelensky, wearing a military-green T-shirt and sitting next to Ukraine’s blue-and-yellow flag, also invoked William Shakespeare as he delivered the chamber’s first-ever virtual speech by a foreign leader.
"The question for us now is, to be or not to be," he said. "Now I can give you a definitive answer: it is yes, to be." Zelensky, while thanking Western countries for their retaliation against Russia, also noted that Nato had failed to accede to his demands to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine.
"But please increase the pressure of sanctions against this country. And please recognise this country as a terrorist state. And please make sure that our skies are safe," he said.