Ukraine’s Zelensky Calls for Justice After Deadly Russian Missile Strikes

“Anyone who prepares such missile attacks cannot but know that he will be an accomplice [to] murder,” Mr. Zelensky said in his nightly address Saturday after rescue workers finished searching through the rubble of the building. “Not only those who give orders but all of you, you are all terrorists and murderers and you must all be punished.”

Hundreds of investigators from Ukraine and abroad have been gathering evidence of war crimes since the early days of the invasion, including extrajudicial killings and indiscriminate shelling. In a historic move, the International Criminal Court last month issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and another senior official over the alleged deportation of children from occupied areas of Ukraine—a war crime. The ICC has no police force and relies on the cooperation of its 123 member states to enforce its warrants, something they haven’t always been willing to do, making it unlikely that Mr. Putin will stand in the dock soon.

Still, the arrest warrants may interfere with the defendants’ ability to travel and the willingness of other leaders to be seen with them.

Mr. Zelenksy said further steps would be taken soon to establish a tribunal for prosecuting the crime of aggression—that is, the crime of instigating a war with another country in the first place. Ukraine previously agreed with the Baltic states, Poland, Romania and Slovakia to create a new center in The Hague to pursue such prosecutions.

Slovak President Zuzana Caputova pledged support for Kyiv in its quest for justice on Saturday following a meeting with Mr. Zelensky in the Ukrainian capital. Ms. Caputova also visited a village in northern Ukraine where nearly 400 residents were held captive by Russian forces in the basement of a school during their occupation last year. Eleven people died.

“We must help bring justice [and] accountability for all war crimes committed in Ukraine,” Ms. Caputova said on Twitter.

The frequency of Russian missile barrages has diminished since Ukraine weathered a campaign aimed at disabling its energy grid and sapping morale over the winter. But sporadic attacks have continued throughout the spring as Russia’s military campaign to gain territory in Ukraine’s east stutters.

Serhiy Cherevaty, the spokesman for Kyiv’s eastern forces, told a Ukrainian media outlet that Ukrainian forces were defending the last remaining supply route into Bakhmut from the west

The latest missile barrage may have aimed to intercept reserve units and military supplies recently provided to Ukraine, the U.K.’s Ministry of Defense said on Saturday.

Ukraine is currently gearing up for an offensive to wrest control of territories occupied by Russia. Many of the weapons pledged by Kyiv’s Western allies earlier this year—including dozens of modern battle tanks—have now been delivered and crews are training on them, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said on Saturday. 

Along the front line in the east of the country, Ukraine’s armed forces repelled dozens of attacks by Russian forces over the past 24 hours, according to the general staff.

The general staff also said an oil depot in the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula that caught fire after being hit by a drone on Saturday was used to provide fuel to the ships of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, which has launched missile strikes on Ukraine. 

While missile barrages have become less frequent, Russia continues to shell Ukraine daily. Rockets struck the center of the Kupyansk district in northern Ukraine early on Sunday, damaging vehicles and private property, said the head of the region’s military administration Oleh Synehubov.

Two people were wounded by Russian shelling of the southern city of Kherson overnight, local authorities said.

A drone struck an oil depot in the port city of Sevastopol in Crimea, according to Russian-installed officials in the region. Kyiv didn’t immediately comment on the alleged drone attack. Photo: Reuters

Write to Isabel Coles at [email protected]

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