Prosecuting Russian war crimes in Ukraine will require ‘stamina’: ICC chief

Karim Khan made the comments during his first official visit to Canada as he seeks to shore up international support for the court's mission to hold Putin criminally responsible.

The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor isn’t ruling out further charges against Russian President Vladimir Putin or his top officials for war crimes in Ukraine, but says further investigation and seeing the current charges — and any that follow — through to trial will require “stamina.”

Karim Khan made the comments during his first official visit to Canada as he seeks to shore up international support for the court’s mission to hold Putin accountable for the war crimes committed during his invasion of Ukraine.

A warrant was issued in March for the arrest of Putin and his children’s rights minister Maria Lvova-Belova over the forced deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia.

“Our job is to follow the evidence, and we did that,” Khan told Eric Sorensen in an interview that aired Sunday on The West Block.

“I think now it requires stamina. It requires the international community to make sure that the law is rendered potent.”

That stamina will also apply to the pursuing of further charges against Putin and other Kremlin officials and military leaders, he says, which will also require following the evidence.

“I said when I was in Bucha, behind St. Andrew’s Church with body bags in front of me, that Ukraine is a crime scene,” Khan said. “I’ve been to Borodyanka and Kharkiv and Kherson and other locations, and one sees a whole variety of devastation.

“I’m going to keep going to the best of my ability with the excellent work of the men and women of my office, with the partnerships we’re building with Ukraine and Canada and many other states, to make sure that the law is felt at this moment of need with greater impact than perhaps people thought was possible.”