The US Department of State said in a statement on Wednesday that the United States, the EU and the United Kingdom had created a joint initiative called the Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group (ACA).
"This joint initiative will directly support the efforts of the War Crimes Units of the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine (OPG) to document, preserve, and analyze evidence of war crimes and other atrocities committed in Ukraine, with a view toward criminal prosecutions," the statement said.
'United across the globe' to 'hold perpetrators responsible'
"We are united across the globe in our resolve to hold perpetrators responsible," it added.
The statement also said that "evidence of atrocities by members of Russia’s forces in Ukraine continues to mount."
Initially, "this violence took the form of bombardments and missile and artillery strikes hitting densely-populated cities and towns, causing thousands of civilian deaths and destruction of civilian infrastructure," the US State Department said.
"Later, when journalists, human rights defenders, and Ukrainian officials gained access to areas following the retreat of Russia’s forces, we saw reports of violence of a different order — credible reports of unarmed civilians shot in the back; individuals killed execution-style with their hands bound; bodies showing signs of torture; and horrific accounts of sexual violence against women and girls," it added.
Most recently, credible reports have been emerging of Ukrainian children being forcibly transferred out of the country, according to the US State Department.
The new transatlantic initiative comes after the United Nations Human Rights Council this month voted to set up an investigation into possible war crimes by Russian troops in Ukraine.
Members on May 12 passed a resolution by an overwhelming majority to order an inquiry into events in Ukraine's Kyiv region and other areas that were temporarily held by Russian troops earlier this year.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, was quoted as saying at the time that there were many examples of possible Russian war crimes in Ukraine.
"The scale of unlawful killings, including indicia of summary executions in areas to the north of Kyiv, is shocking," Bachelet said, as quoted by the Reuters news agency.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Emine Dzhaparova told the UN Human Rights Council that areas that were under Russian occupation in late February and March "experienced the most gruesome human rights violations on the European continent in decades," according to Reuters.
A Polish deputy justice minister told an international conference in Lithuania earlier this month that Poland had collected more than 1,000 witness statements on Russian atrocities in Ukraine.
(gs)
Source: PAP, state.gov