International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Karim Khan poses during an interview with Reuters at the ICC in The Hague, Netherlands, March 3, 2022. (REUTERS/Christian Levaux/File Photo)
THE HAGUE 鈥擳he chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, visited Ukraine on Wednesday and held virtual meetings with President Volodymyr Zelensky, his office said.
The ICC has started a formal investigation into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine after Russia invaded its smaller neighbor on Feb. 24.
Neither Russia nor Ukraine are members of the ICC and Moscow does not recognize the tribunal, which opened in The Hague in 2002. But Ukraine has given its approval to examine alleged atrocities on its territory dating back to Russia鈥檚 annexation of in 2014.
Thousands of people have been killed and several million displaced in the past three weeks during what Moscow calls its 鈥渟pecial military operation鈥� in Ukraine.
Russia denies targetting civilians during its invasion of Ukraine and says its goal is to disarm 鈥渘ationalists and neo-Nazis鈥� there, claims Kyiv and the West say are baseless.
鈥淚 was pleased to hold important exchanges with the president while in the country,鈥� Khan said on social media.
鈥淲e agreed all efforts are needed to ensure international humanitarian law is respected and to protect the civilian population.鈥�
Khan was scheduled to hold a news conference from Poland later on Wednesday.
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