Croatia joins initiative for war crimes investigations in Ukraine

Croatia has joined 39 other countries in asking the International Criminal Court to open an investigation into war crimes committed in Ukraine, the government said on Friday.

The initiative requests that International Criminal Court prosecutors investigate war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide believed to have been committed in Ukraine since November 2013.

"Perpetrators of these sorts of crimes must be prosecuted. As a member of the Rome Statue, we will send a request to prosecutors at the International Criminal Court to open up an investigation into crimes committed in Ukraine from 21 November, 2013 until today," Justice Minister Ivan Malenica.

Although Ukraine is not party to the Rome Statute whereby the ICC was established, it has accepted its jurisdiction over crimes against its citizens of which it accuses Russian officials and officials of the separatist regions in east Ukraine.

Besides Croatia, the initiative has been supported by all EU member states except Lithuania, which submitted its own request independently, as well as Australia, Canada, Switzerland and Great Britain, to name a few.

The UN has documented the deaths of 1,480 civilians in Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24th.

The Croatian government also decided on Friday to send some 1.5 million kuna worth of aid to Ukraine, in response to Ukraine's request.