Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a speech at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague on Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin would face an international war crimes court “when Ukraine wins the war”. In the speech titled ‘No Peace without Justice for Ukraine’, Zelenskyy said Putin “deserves to be sentenced for criminal actions right here in the capital of the international law” and expressed confidence that it would happen, reported news agency Associated Press.
The ICC has already issued an arrest warrant for Putin on allegations of war crimes related to the abduction of children in Ukraine. However, the ICC cannot prosecute the crime of war aggression itself. Zelenskyy’s speech was an appeal for a full-fledged tribunal to prosecute that overarching crime, the AP report stated.
Zelenskyy’s speech came a day after he denied that Ukrainian forces were responsible for what the Kremlin called an attempt to assassinate Putin in a drone attack on Moscow. The Kremlin promised retaliation for what it termed a “terrorist” act. Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, accused the United States of being behind the alleged attack and stated that the decision on such actions and terrorist attacks is made in Washington, not Kyiv.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s military claimed that three Russian drones hit the southern city of Odesa early on Thursday, with “for Moscow” and “for the Kremlin” written on them, seemingly referring to the strikes in Moscow. Additionally, Kyiv was the target of an air attack for the third time in four days. Ukraine’s Air Forces intercepted 18 out of 24 Iranian-made drones launched by