At least 16 people including the Ukrainian Minister of the Interior and two children were killed in the crash of a helicopter, this Wednesday, January 18, near a kindergarten in the kyiv region, announced the national police. “In total, we currently have information on 16 deaths, including two children,” police said in a statement.
Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky, 42, his first deputy Yevgeny Ienin, 42, and another senior ministry official on board the aircraft were also killed, the statement said. In addition, 22 injured including ten children were hospitalized, according to the same source. The crash took place in Brovary, a town of some 100,000 inhabitants which touches the eastern suburbs of the capital, kyiv.
Stopping research at Dnipro
After the amazement of the explosion, the dread of the balance sheet. Ukraine on Tuesday stopped its search for survivors in Dnipro (center-east) in the rubble of a residential building destroyed by a Russian missile, one of the deadliest bombings of the war. 45 people died, according to kyiv, including “six children, the youngest of whom was 11 months old”. “79 people were injured, including 16 children. 28 people are currently hospitalized, 10 are in serious condition,” an adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, wrote in the evening on Telegram.
An entire section of the building collapsed, trapping dozens of people in the rubble. Volodymyr Zelensky has vowed to bring “everyone guilty of this war crime” to justice. Moscow denied, as in previous episodes, any involvement in the carnage, while the EU denounced a war crime. Marked by this episode, and while Ukraine seems to have lost the strategic battle of Soledar, the West reaffirmed its support for Ukraine, which should notably go through the delivery of armored vehicles, in the coming days.
An “international prosecution” to judge Russia?
The European Commission said on Tuesday that it was considering setting up an international prosecutor’s office to gather evidence of the crime of aggression committed by Russia in Ukraine, before the possible creation of a special tribunal. “Before discussions on a special court can possibly garner sufficient international consensus and support, an inquiry mechanism could first be considered,” EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders said in the hemicycle. of the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
The Commission is considering the possibility of setting up an international prosecutor’s office, in order to launch investigations into the crime of aggression, with the aim of preserving and storing evidence for possible future trials”, he said. At the end of November, the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen proposed to work on the creation of a special tribunal “backed by the United Nations” to try “Russia’s crimes of aggression” in Ukraine, as kyiv demands it.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is already investigating alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine. But it is not competent for the “crimes of aggression” of Russia, because Moscow is not a signatory of the Treaty of Rome, founder of the Court. Calls have therefore multiplied since the beginning of the invasion for the creation of a tribunal that can prosecute these crimes of aggression.
More Patriots and Heavy Tanks
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced on Tuesday his “intention” to help Ukraine equip itself with the Patriot air defense system during a visit to Washington. The Netherlands could provide all or part of this weapon, or training in its use, “very important news”, rejoiced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Before them, the United States and Germany also pledged to supply Ukraine with such weapons.
As for delivering heavy tanks to Ukraine? This is a “moral imperative” for the head of British diplomacy James Cleverly, on tour in the United States since Tuesday. On the occasion of this trip, the minister preached for the sending of this type of armament – he promises to deliver 14 heavy Challenger 2 tanks – while the West has for the moment been content to send light armored vehicles .
Ukraine’s European allies have sent over 300 modernized Soviet tanks since the start of the Russian invasion. Recently, the United States and France pledged to deliver Bradley and AMX-10 RC armored vehicles. But it is the United Kingdom, with these heavy tanks, which promises the most impactful armament, while part of Europe is pressuring Germany to be able to deliver Leopard tanks, coveted by kyiv.
“What Putin needs to understand is that we will have the strategic stamina to stick with them until the job is done and the best thing he can do to preserve the lives of his own soldiers, c is to recognize it,” he told the Center for Strategic and International Studies. And to conclude. “If Putin thought for a moment that the world would tire of Ukraine […] so he again made a colossal error in judgement.”