Ukraine: Matter of time before Putin is on trial for war crimes, US envoy says

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2 years ago

February 24, 2023

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It is only a matter of time before Vladimir Putin is on trial for war crimes according to President Biden’s envoy for global criminal justice.

Speaking to Sky News, ambassador Beth Van Schaack said a global coalition of nations and international lawyers is working together to build a case against Russia which leads right to the top.

“We need to connect the crimes we’re seeing on the ground, that we have very clear digital evidence of, with those in the position of command and control,” she said.

UN demands Russia withdraws as Ukraine marks year of resistance – war latest

“So, go up the chain of command; who ordered these offenses? Who allowed them to be committed?

“Who has failed to prosecute and investigate those deemed most responsible? Who has failed to properly supervise their subordinates?”

The quest for justice came as the general assembly of the United Nations overwhelmingly adopted a resolution calling for a comprehensive, lasting and just peace.

Some 141 of the UN’s 193 member nations called for Russia to withdraw from Ukraine and for accountability for war crimes.

Just six countries – Belarus, North Korea, Eritrea, Mali, Nicaragua and Syria – voted with Russia against the resolution.

China, India, Iran and South Africa were among the 32 countries who abstained.

The vote is not binding but does indicate that global resolve against Russian aggression has not dwindled over the past year.

A Western diplomatic source told Sky News: “One year on and despite all Russia’s efforts to distract and confuse and strong-arm people, international support for Ukraine has remained rock solid.”

Significantly, the attempt by Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov to garner support in Africa with a recent tour of nations there didn’t have the desired effect.

With the exception of Mali and Eritrea, they did not vote with Russia.

Putin in the dock

Asked how likely it is that President Putin faces a courtroom himself, Ambassador Van Schaack told Sky News: “Well, Augusto Pinochet, Slobodan Milosevic, Hissene Habre of Chad?

“I don’t think any of those men thought they would ever see the inside of a courtroom and every single one of them did. And so we need to be playing a long game here.”

Earlier this month, America’s secretary of state, Antony Blinken, announced that the US believes crimes against humanity have been carried out by Russia.

Mr Blinken said: “Members of Russia’s forces have committed execution-style killings of Ukrainian men, women and children; torture of civilians in detention through beatings, electrocution and mock executions; rape; and, alongside other Russian officials, have deported hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian civilians to Russia, including children who have been forcibly separated from their families.”

He added: “These acts are not random or spontaneous; they are part of the Kremlin’s widespread and systematic attack against Ukraine’s civilian population.”

Ambassador Van Schaack described the wealth of digital evidence being used to build a case against Russia.

“We’ve seen the satellite imagery and other imagery even just taken from ordinary CCTV cameras on people’s front yards of bodies lying hands tied behind their back; clear evidence of either torture or summary execution-style killings,” she said.

“Ordinary civilians now are capable of documenting the commission of war crimes around them by simply holding up their cell phone,” she added.

“The problem now is maybe too much information and having to sift through all of that digital information to find the best evidence.”

Avenues for justice – and the shadow of Iraq

There are a number of routes to pursue a case against Vladimir Putin, his inner circle and individuals within his military hierarchy.

One is a prosecutor general in Ukraine investigating cases in the country’s own domestic system with support from the international community.

Another avenue is the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Domestic courts around the world could also play a role.

Many European states have already formed joint investigative teams to share information with each other about the condition of potential abuses, and potential responsible individuals.

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Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy is also seeking a mechanism to prosecute a specific case of the crime of aggression.

Ambassador Van Schaack explained: “This is a high priority for Ukraine, because they see that initial act of aggression as being the original sin that unleashed all of the other war crimes and atrocities that we’re seeing around the country.”

This avenue presents an awkward dilemma for the US.

Its invasion of Iraq in 2003, without United Nations approval, was deemed illegal by many counties who argue it represented an American-led act of aggression.

But Ambassador Van Schaack argues that it is “a false equivalence”.

“Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is a manifest violation of the UN Charter,” she said.

“And it has been accompanied by war crimes everywhere. The world is increasingly united around the imperative of justice in this case.”

World

The fight for the Arctic – where climate change is giving Russia room to manoeuvre

Published

8 hours ago

May 29, 2025

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The fight for the Arctic - where climate change is giving Russia room to manoeuvre

The twin threats of climate change and Russian malign activity in the Arctic must be taken “deadly seriously,” David Lammy has warned.

Sky News joined him on the furthest reaching tour of the Arctic by a British foreign secretary.

We travelled to Svalbard – a Norwegian archipelago that is the most northern settled land on Earth, 400 miles from the North Pole.

It is at the heart of an Arctic region facing growing geopolitical tension and feeling the brunt of climate change.

Mr Lammy told us the geopolitics of the region must be taken “deadly seriously” due to climate change and “the threats we’re seeing from Russia”.

We witnessed the direct impact of climate change along Svalbard’s coastline and inland waterways. There is less ice, we were told, compared to the past.

The melting ice is opening up the Arctic and allowing Russia more freedom to manoeuvre.

“We do see Russia’s shadow fleet using these waters,” Mr Lammy said. “We do see increased activity from submarines with nuclear capability under our waters and we do see hybrid sabotage of undersea cables at this time.”

In Tromso, further south, the foreign secretary was briefed by Norwegian military commanders.

Vice Admiral Rune Andersen, the Chief of Norwegian Joint Headquarters, told Sky News the Russian threat was explicit.

“Russia has stated that they are in confrontation with the West and are utilising a lot of hybrid methods to undermine Western security,” he said.

But it’s not just Vladimir Putin they’re worried about. Norwegian observers are concerned by US president Donald Trump’s strange relationship with the Russian leader too.

Karsten Friis, a Norwegian defence and security analyst, told Sky News: “If he’s too soft on Putin, if he is kind of normalising relations with Russia, I wouldn’t be surprised.

“I would expect Russia to push us, to test us, to push borders, to see what we can do as Europeans.”

Changes in the Arctic mean new challenges for the NATO military alliance – including stepping up activity to deter threats, most of all from Russia.

In Iceland, we toured a NATO airbase with the foreign secretary.

There, he said maintaining robust presence in the Arctic was essential for western security.

“Let’s be clear, in this challenging geopolitical moment the high north and the Arctic is a heavily contested arena and we should be under no doubt that NATO and the UK need to protect it for our own national security.”

This is also about distracting Russia, drawing away resources that could have been used in the war in Ukraine and deterring it in the future.

Because the more Arctic opens up, the more this once pristine wilderness is becoming the arena of national rivalry and potentially conflict.

World

‘What did they do to be burned and bombed?’: Charity calls on UK to offer Gaza children life-saving treatment

Published

14 hours ago

May 29, 2025

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'What did they do to be burned and bombed?': Charity calls on UK to offer Gaza children life-saving treatment

A British charity has written to the prime minister and foreign secretary, urging them to allow seriously ill children from Gaza into the UK to receive life-saving medical treatment.

Warning: This article contains images readers may find distressing

The co-founder of Project Pure Hope told Sky News it was way past the time for words.

“Now, we need action,” Omar Dinn said.

He’s identified two children inside Gaza who urgently need help and is appealing to the UK government to issue visas as a matter of urgency.

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Britain has taken only two patients from Gaza for medical treatment in 20 months of Israeli bombardment.

“Most of the people affected by this catastrophe that’s unfolding in Gaza are children,” he continued. “And children are the most vulnerable.

“They have nothing to do with the politics, and we really just need to see them for what they are.

“They are children, just like my children, just like everybody’s children in this country – and we have the ability to help them.”

Sky News has been sent video blogs from British surgeons working in Gaza right now which show the conditions and difficulties they’re working under.

They prepare for potential immediate evacuation whilst facing long lists, mainly of children, needing life-saving emergency treatment day after day.

Dr Victoria Rose told us: “Every time I come, I say it’s really bad, but this is on a completely different scale now. It’s mass casualties. It’s utter carnage.

“We are incapable of getting through this volume. We don’t have the personnel. We don’t have the medical supplies. And we really don’t have the facilities.

“We are the last standing hospital in the south of Gaza. We really are on our knees now.”

One of her patients is three-year-old Hatem, who was badly burned when an Israeli airstrike hit the family apartment.

His pregnant mother and father were both killed, leaving him an orphan. He has 35 percent burns on his small body.

“It’s a massive burn for a little guy like this,” Dr Rose says. “He’s so adorable. His eyelids are burnt. His hands are burnt. His feet are burnt.”

Hatem’s grandfather barely leaves his hospital bedside. Hatem Senior told us: “What did these children do wrong to suffer such injuries? To be burned and bombed? We ask God to grant them healing.”

The second child identified by the charity is Karam, who, aged one, is trying to survive in a tent in deeply unhygienic surroundings with a protruding intestine.

He’s suffering from a birth defect called Hirschsprung disease, which could be easily operated on with the right skills and equipment – unavailable to him in Gaza right now.

Karam’s mother Manal told our Gaza camera crew: “No matter how much I describe how much my son is suffering, I wouldn’t be able to describe it enough. I swear I am constantly crying.”

Children are among the bulk of casualties – some 16,000 have been killed, according to the latest figures from local health officials – and make up the majority of those being operated on, according to the British surgical team on the ground.