Ukraine investigating 28,000 Russian war crimes, including child deaths: ambassador

OTTAWA

Ukraine’s ambassador to Canada says her country is investigating more than 28,000 suspected war crimes, including the killing of 373 children by Russian forces.

Ambassador Yulia Kovaliv says the crimes being documented and probed, with help from Canadian investigators, include the kidnapping of children taken to Russia, and the murder of fleeing civilians.

“What we want to do is to properly document each and every crime and we will bring Russia to justice,” she said in an interview, during which she was called by Ukraine’s prosecutor general about the issue.

Among the war crimes being investigated are the discovery of 458 bodies, including 12 children, in Bucha, a suburb of Kyiv occupied for 33 days by the Russians.

Efforts are also being made to bring kidnapped Ukrainian children back from Russia.

In an interview on the eve of Ukrainian Independence Day on Wednesday, she said Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is not just a military assault, but an effort to erase the country’s cultural heritage.

Since it invaded Ukraine six months ago, Russia has launched a systematic drive to destroy everything Ukrainian by burning books, bombing museums and churches, and making people in occupied areas, including schoolchildren, speak Russian, Kovaliv said.

“Russia is now trying to purge the Ukrainians in occupied territories and to issue them Russian passports,” she said. “Ukrainians refuse to do it, even under threat.”

She also accused Russia of engaging in “energy terrorism,” bombing 90 per cent of wind farms and solar energy facilities in Ukraine.

Despite this, Ukraine is trying to boost electricity supplies to neighbouring European countries.

However, she said the situation at a Russian-occupied nuclear power plant — the largest in Europe — is grave, with Ukrainians working “to prevent a catastrophe” in the presence of armed Russian soldiers.

“There is military equipment in the nuclear power plant ... that is a huge risk.”

International inspectors must be immediately allowed into the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, she said, to ensure its safety.

Before coming to Ottawa, the ambassador had a number of senior roles in Ukraine including as deputy head of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office, focusing on the economy and international financial organizations.

“When the war broke out, I was working on the board of the biggest state owned oil and gas company,” she said.

Yet Ottawa is her first diplomatic post, and an important one, as Canada is one of Ukraine’s most steadfast allies and most generous donors, this month giving $450 million to help Ukraine buy gas to prepare for a harsh winter ahead.

As well as more military equipment, she is asking Canada for warm clothing and winter camouflage for Ukraine’s troops so they can fight in the snow.

The embassy walls are peppered with photographs of the destruction in Ukraine, including ones of wounded civilians and mothers in hospital beds.