The UK Shadow Foreign Secretary, Shadow Defence Secretary, and President of GRC visited the site of a mass grave in Bucha, Ukraine, to commemorate the terrible atrocities of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and to discuss the intensifying war crimes investigations with international legal experts.
Shadow Foreign Secretary, David Lammy MP, and Shadow Defence Secretary, John Healey MP, were received at St Andrew’s Orthodox Church in Bucha, Ukraine, 23 miles north of the capital, Kyiv.
At the church yesterday, they remembered an atrocity which was uncovered in early April 2022, just days after occupying Russian forces were driven from the town in a counter-offensive. Bodies of 116 Ukrainian men, women and children were discovered, piled on-top of each other in a 13-metre mass grave, filled with sand.
At yesterday’s meeting, the British politicians heard from international legal experts, including British barrister Wayne Jordash KC, a world-leading war crimes expert.
Kyiv-based Mr Jordash is President of Global Rights Compliance (GRC) – a human rights foundation assisting Ukraine’s Office of the Prosecutor General to investigate over 130,000 registered war crimes cases. GRC has established ‘Mobile Justice Teams’ across Ukraine, comprising Ukrainian and foreign lawyers who are deployed to regions such as Bucha to assist with evidence analysis, training, case building and victim safeguarding.
Mr Jordash updated on the progress of the Mobile Justice Teams’ support of investigations into the deaths of the 116 civilians uncovered at St Andrew’s Orthodox Church, in addition to a multitude of other potential war crimes that took place during Russian forces’ occupation, including those related to the deaths of 342 others found dead across the town.
Of the 458 civilians recorded deaths in Bucha since April 2022, the youngest of them is a two-year old child and the eldest a 99-year old lady. Many have been found with their hands tied behind their backs, with gunshot wounds to their heads. Hundreds of others were disappeared, tortured and subjected to sexual violence by occupying Russian forces.
Local prosecutors have identified several units as potentially responsible for the crimes committed in Bucha, including soldiers from the 64th Motorized Rifle Brigade, who were under ultimate battlefield command of Alexsandr Yuryevich Chaiko, a man who gained a global reputation for his brutality and role in some of the worst atrocities in the Syrian war, and who was later sanctioned by the United Kingdom.
The crimes under investigation by local prosecutors and their international partners represent breaches of international humanitarian law and are war crimes under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
At the visit, President of Global Rights Compliance, Wayne Jordash KC, said: “Russia’s military units in Bucha and many of the direct perpetrators have been identified. The body of evidence collected, and the attention paid to these investigations, both domestically and internationally, raises the possibility that the entirety of war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and the commanders and political leaders responsible may be identified and held accountable so justice can be served.”
Shadow Foreign Secretary, Rt. Hon David Lammy MP, stated: “As detailed to me yesterday, the crimes committed by Russian forces in Bucha are heinous. The international community must continue to support Ukraine, in all areas, including in the area of accountability within atrocity crimes.
Labour is committed to holding the Russian regime to account for its crimes.”