Can Vladimir Putin be charged with war crimes? Russia’s leader to be investigated for invading Ukraine as aversion to atrocities grows worldwide

• Lawyers from the International Criminal Court have revealed that they are preparing for a full investigation
• Boris Johnson said evidence of war crimes would be collected and used
• Justice Minister Dominique Raab urges Russian commanders not to obey orders that violate international law

from David Barrett, Home Affairs correspondent for the Daily Mail

Posted: 23:06 GMT, March 1, 2022 | Updated: 23:32 GMT, 1 March 2022

Vladimir Putin faces a war crimes tribunal, international prosecutors said last night as global aversion to his atrocities grew.

Lawyers from the International Criminal Court have revealed that they are preparing for a full investigation “as soon as possible”.

Boris Johnson he said: “There is no doubt about that [Putin] already using barbaric tactics, bombing civilian areas.

“I’ve seen reports of cluster bombs and thermobaric weapons.”

“Everyone involved in the Russian offensive must understand that all this will be gathered as evidence that will be used in the future in what may be proceedings before the International Criminal Court.”

Vladimir Putin faces war crimes trials, international prosecutors said last night as global aversion to his atrocities grows

Speaking during a visit to Poland yesterday, he added that the Russian president had decided to “send rockets into towers to kill children, as we see in increasing numbers.”

Justice Minister Dominique Raab called on Russian commanders not to obey orders that violate international law, adding: “There will be no impunity for war crimes.

“There is a clear determination from the international community to ensure that all war crimes are held accountable, whether it is Putin or the people around him in Moscow or commanders on the ground.

“They need to know that if they carry out these orders, there is a reasonable prospect … that they will end up spending their twilight years behind bars.”

Mr Raab, a former lawyer with the Foreign Ministry, has previously worked at the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands, helping to bring war criminals to justice.

Asked if Putin could stand trial at the International Criminal Court, Mr Raab said: “We will not allow those responsible to just wait and hope that international attention will shift elsewhere.

“We just showed it with Radovan Karadzic, one of the butchers in the Balkans. Years later, he found himself on trial in The Hague, and now he is in a British prison with a high degree of security, where he will spend his days.

The United States is also investigating whether Russia has committed war crimes, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said, citing “reports that are appalling barbaric tactics, whether they are cluster bombs or other tactics we have seen that can be classified as war crime ‘.

Lawyers from the International Criminal Court have revealed that they are preparing for a full investigation “as soon as possible”. Boris Johnson said: “There is no doubt about that [Putin] already using barbaric tactics, bombing civilian areas. I’ve seen reports of cluster bombs and thermobaric weapons.

Irish Foreign Minister Simon Cowney said there was “indisputable evidence” of war crimes in Ukraine and Canada should ask the ICC to act.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said: “Russian forces brutally shelled Kharkiv with rocket artillery. It was obviously a war crime.

“Kharkov is calm, there are quiet residential areas, no military facilities. Dozens of eyewitness accounts prove that this is not a single fake volley, but the deliberate destruction of people.

“The Russians knew where they were shooting.

“There will definitely be an international tribunal for this crime – it is a violation of all conventions. No one in the world will forgive you for killing a peaceful Ukrainian people.

The chief prosecutor of the ICC, British lawyer Karim Khan, said he expected a full investigation as soon as possible.

A report by the ICC, published a little over a year ago, found that “behavior that constitutes war crimes and crimes against humanity” related to Russia’s actions in Ukraine since 2013.

“There is a reasonable basis to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity were committed in connection with events assessed during the preliminary inspection,” he said.

“Given the escalation of the conflict, my intention is for this investigation to cover all new alleged crimes.”

Questions and Answers

What accusations can Putin face?

Indiscriminate attacks on civilians would be a war crime, as would civilian buildings such as schools and hospitals.

Cluster munitions are widely banned because they are indiscriminate. Russia has been accused of using them against a preschool in northeastern Ukraine.

It is also alleged that Russia used a thermobaric weapon known as a vacuum bomb, which is also indiscriminate.

Oleg Sinegubov, the governor of Kharkiv, said Russia was “using weapons banned by all international conventions”, including cluster bombs.

What did Russia say?

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted yesterday that Russia had not struck at civilians, and said reports of cluster munitions and vacuum bombs had been fabricated.

Where can a trial take place?

The most likely place is the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Established in 2002 by a treaty called the Rome Statute, it prosecutes war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

What did the ICC say?

Attorney General Karim Khan, a British lawyer, said he would launch an investigation “as soon as possible”. The ICC has been monitoring Ukraine since 2014 following Russian actions there.

Can Putin be tried in his absence?

The ICC has never done this. Its rules state: “The accused must be present during the trial.”

Can an ICC investigation harm Putin?

it will become more of a global pariah and could face arrest outside Russia.

What penalties can the ICC impose?

In 2016, former Bosnian Serb politician Radovan Karadzic was found guilty of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

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Three House Republicans rejected hate crime legislation named after murdered black teenager Emmett Till in a vote Monday night.

HR 55, called the Emmett Till Anti-Lynch Act, was passed by a majority of 422 votes in favor in the lower house of Congress.

The bill aims to make lynching a federal hate crime punishable by up to 30 years in prison.

The only votes “against” the legislation belonged to the representative Thomas Massi from KentuckyRepresentative Chip Roy from Texas and representative Andrew Clyde of Georgia.

Massi posted a statement on Twitter explaining that he had voted against the bill for fears that it would impede state rights and “freedom of speech.”

“The constitution specifies only a handful of federal crimes, leaving the rest to individual states to prosecute,” Massi wrote Monday night. “This bill extends existing federal hate crime laws. Crime is a crime and all victims deserve equal justice. The addition of increased penalties for “hate” tends to threaten other freedoms such as freedom of speech. “

The Kentucky legislator added: “Lynching is now illegal in every state. The adoption of this legislation wrongly implies that lynching someone is no longer a criminal activity.

Massi explained in a long topic on Twitter that he believes the legislation will impede state rights and the First Amendment

“The bill creates another federal conspiracy crime, which I fear could be imposed too widely on people who are not perpetrators.”

Roy issued a statement calling the lynching “an indescribably heinous crime,” but said HR 55 had “nothing to do with it.”

“In fact, this does not create new federal crimes. It simply increases the punishment for things that are already federal crimes, including those not related to lynching – such as gender identity – in an attempt to promote an awakened agenda under the guise of correcting racial injustice, “Roy said.

The Texas Republican hinted that lawmakers and the media are not “honest” in presenting the law.

“Congress and the media need to be honest with the American people about what bills do and don’t do,” he said.

It is named after Emmett Till, who was just 14 when he was brutally murdered by two white men who were acquitted by an all-white jury.

“As much as I support tougher penalties for abusers, this is a matter for the states and I will not vote for legislative fraud. Nor will I support the strengthening of the federal government, which so often abuses it.

Georgia Clyde’s spokesman told DailyMail.com that the bill “wrongly assumes” that lynchings are no longer punishable.

“Lynching is an evil act of violence that is already against the law at the federal level; this is first-degree murder. In addition, my home state of Georgia recently signed hate crime legislation last year, “he said.

“HR 55 will not create a new federal crime, and the current hate crime penal code already establishes penalties for intentionally causing bodily harm to another person. Simply put, we do not need another duplicate federal law. Cutting out a separate distinction for lynching may be symbolic, but it is wrong to assume that those who perform or attempt to perform lynching are no longer facing criminal charges and consequences. Regardless of the method or tool used in a horrific act of violence, all victims of crime deserve equal justice.

The Emmett Till bill was introduced in early January by longtime Illinois Democrat Bobby Rush.

Rush, who is retiring later this year, is a civil rights activist, pastor and veteran of the military who helped create the Black Panthers. He did so with his late friend and chairman of the Illinois Black Panthers, Fred Hampton, who was killed by federal law enforcement in a pre-dawn attack while he slept in his bed.

The law was passed by an overwhelming majority in the House of Representatives on Monday night

“By passing my anti-lynching law to Emmett Till, the House has sent a resounding message that our nation is finally coming to terms with one of the darkest and most horrific periods in our history and that we are morally and legally committed to changing course.” said Rush. in a statement after the adoption of the bill.

“I was eight years old when my mother placed the picture of Emmett Till’s brutal body, which was published in Jet magazine, on our coffee table in the living room, pointed it out, and said, ‘That’s why I took my boys out of Albany, Georgia. “This picture shaped my consciousness as a black man in America, changed the course of my life and changed our nation.

Emmett Till was just 14 when he was lynched in Mississippi in 1955 after being accused of flirting with a white woman.

An all-white jury acquitted two men who later admitted to killing the teenager in an interview with a magazine. They beat and mutilated Till before shooting him in the head and dumping his body in the Talahachi River.

After the bill was passed Monday night, Rush called on the three Republicans who voted against.

Representative Bobby Rush, the Illinois Democrat who introduced the bill, targeted three votes against Monday night

‘What were the 3 votes against #AntilynchingAct tonight?’ Rush wrote on Twitter.

Andrew Clyde, Georgia: Called Uprising 1/6 “Normal Tourist Visit”

“Thomas Massey, KY: He wrote a bill to allow weapons in school areas

Chip Roy, Texas: Called lynching an “example of justice”

He concluded: “All Republicans. Surprised?

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi celebrated the passage of the law as she mourned Till’s “brutal murder” decades ago.

“Unfortunately, hate attacks are still not a relic of the past: from the scourge of police violence to attacks on temples. That is why the Democratic Congress is working hard, empowering our legal system with more tools to bring perpetrators to justice, “Pelosi said in a statement.

“Every act of fanatical violence is an attack on the most basic promise of American democracy: ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.’ Democrats in the House of Representatives will not rest until we guarantee these inalienable rights for every American. We now call on the Senate to take immediate action and send this bill to the President’s Office. “

WASHINGTON. When Russia took over Crimea in 2014, President Vladimir Putin was so worried about Russian casualty figures coming out that authorities approached journalists who were trying to cover the funerals of some of the 400 soldiers who died in the month-long campaign.

But Moscow may be losing as many soldiers every day in Mr. Putin’s latest invasion of Ukraine, US and European officials have said. Growing Russian troop losses expose the potential weakness of the Russian president at a time when he still publicly claims to be involved in only a limited military operation in Ukraine’s separatist east.

No one can say with certainty how many Russian troops have died since last Thursday when they launched what turns into a long march on Kyiv, the capital. On Tuesday, the Pentagon said some Russian units had laid down their arms and refused to fight. Until now, large Ukrainian cities have withstood the onslaught.

American officials expected, for example, that the city of Kharkiv in the northeast would fall in a day, but Ukrainian forces resisted and regained control despite a ferocious rocket attack. The bodies of Russian soldiers remained in the vicinity of Kharkov. Videos and photos shared on social media show the charred remains of tanks and armored vehicles, their crews killed or wounded.

Major General Igor Konashenkov, spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, acknowledged for the first time on Sunday that “there are dead and wounded” Russian servicemen, but did not give figures. He insisted that Ukrainian losses were “many times” higher. Ukraine said its forces killed more than 5,300 Russian troops.

Neither side’s claims have been independently verified, and Biden administration officials declined to publicly discuss the casualty figures. But one US official estimated Russia’s losses as of Monday at 2,000, and two European officials agreed with that estimate.

Senior Pentagon officials told lawmakers in private briefings on Monday that Russian and Ukrainian military casualties appeared to be the same: about 1,500 on each side in the first five days, Congressional officials said. But they warned that the numbers based on satellite imagery, message intercepts, social media and local media reports are estimates.

For comparison, during the 20 years of the war in Afghanistan, about 2,500 American servicemen were killed.

For Mr. Putin, the rising death toll could harm any remaining domestic support for his efforts in Ukraine. Russian memories are long — and mothers of soldiers in particular, US officials say, can easily remember the 15,000 soldiers killed when the Soviet Union invaded and occupied Afghanistan, or the thousands killed in Chechnya.

Russia has deployed field hospitals close to the front lines, say military analysts who have also monitored ambulances traveling back and forth from Russian units to hospitals in neighboring Belarus, a Moscow ally.

“Given the numerous reports of the deaths of more than 4,000 Russians, it is clear that something dramatic is happening,” said Admiral James G. Stavridis, who served as Supreme Allied Commander of NATO until his retirement. “If Russian losses are so significant, Vladimir Putin will have a hard time explaining himself behind his lines.”

Representative Adam B. Schiff, a California Democrat and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, added, “The longer this goes on, the more Russians will be coming home in body bags, and the more Russian families will be grieving.”

In particular, Pentagon officials and military analysts said it was surprising that Russian soldiers left behind the bodies of their comrades.

Updated

March 1, 2022 5:54 pm ET

“It was shocking to see them abandon their fallen brothers on the battlefield,” said Evelyn Farkas, a senior Pentagon official for Russia and Ukraine during the Obama administration. “In the end, moms will be like, ‘Where’s Yuri? Where is Maxim?

The Ukrainian government has already begun to answer this question. Authorities launched a website on Sunday that they say was supposed to help Russian families find information about soldiers who may have been killed or taken prisoner. The site, which claims to have been created by Ukraine’s Interior Ministry, says it provides videos of captured Russian soldiers, some of them injured. Pictures and videos change throughout the day.

“If your relatives or friends are in Ukraine and are participating in the war against our people, here you can get information about their fate,” the website says.

The site’s name, www.200rf.com, is a grim reference to Gruz 200, a military code word used in the Soviet Union to refer to the bodies of soldiers placed in galvanized coffins for transport from the battlefield. ; it is a euphemism for troops who died in the war.

Understand Russia’s attack on Ukraine

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What is at the heart of this invasion? Russia sees Ukraine as its natural sphere of influence and is unnerved by Ukraine’s proximity to the West and the prospect of the country joining NATO or the European Union. Although Ukraine is not part of either, it receives financial and military assistance from the US and Europe.

Are these frictions just beginning now? Antagonism between the two countries has simmered since 2014, when Russian troops crossed into Ukraine after an uprising in Ukraine replaced a Russian-friendly president with a pro-Western government. Russia then annexed Crimea and instigated a separatist movement in the east. A ceasefire was agreed in 2015, but fighting continues.

How did Ukraine react? On February 23, Ukraine declared a state of emergency for 30 days as cyberattacks disabled state institutions. After the attacks began, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky declared martial law. The Foreign Minister called the attacks a “full-scale invasion” and called on the world to “stop Putin.”

The website is part of a campaign launched by Ukraine and the West to counter what U.S. officials characterize as Russian disinformation, which includes Russia’s pre-invasion claim that troops surrounding Ukraine were there simply for military exercises. Information and the struggle for public opinion around the world began to play a huge role in the war, which began to seem like a David vs. Goliath contest.

On Monday, Ukrainian Ambassador to the UN Serhiy Kyslitsa read to the General Assembly what he said was the last text message from a Russian soldier to his mother. They were obtained, he said, by Ukrainian forces after the soldier was killed. “We were told that we would be welcomed, but they get under our armored vehicles, throw themselves under the wheels and do not let us pass,” he wrote, according to Mr. Kislitsa. “They call us fascists. Mom, it’s so hard.”

According to Russia experts and Pentagon officials, the decision to read the texts was a less-veiled reminder to Mr. Putin of the role of Russian mothers in drawing attention to military casualties that the government was trying to keep under wraps. In fact, the group, now called the Union of Committees of Soldiers’ Mothers of Russia, played a key role in opening up the military to public scrutiny and influencing perceptions of military service, writes Russian historian Julie Elkner in The Journal of Power. Institutions in Post-Soviet Societies.

On Tuesday, a senior Pentagon official said entire Russian units had laid down their arms without a fight after facing surprisingly tough Ukrainian defenses. On some occasions, Russian servicemen punched holes in the gas tanks of their vehicles, the official said, allegedly to avoid combat.

A Pentagon official, speaking on the condition of anonymity when discussing operational developments, declined to say how the military made those estimates — presumably based on a mosaic of intelligence data, including claims by captured Russian soldiers and intercepts of communications — or how far-reaching those failures might be. be on a vast battlefield.

According to a Biden administration official, images of body bags or coffins or soldiers killed and left behind on the battlefield will prove most devastating for Mr. Putin at home.

Ukrainian officials are using social media posts and images of Russian casualties to try to undermine the morale of the invading Russian forces.

On Monday, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov offered Russian soldiers money and an amnesty if they surrendered.

“Russian soldier! You were brought to our land to be killed and die,” he said. “Do not follow criminal orders. We guarantee you a full amnesty and 5 million rubles if you lay down your arms. There will be no mercy for those who continue to act like an occupier.”

Thomas Gibbons-Neff and Cathy Edmondson provided reporting. Kitty Bennett contributed to the study.

Covid-induced diabetes can only be temporary: Half of the patients have normalized blood sugar after leaving the hospital and less than 10% need insulin after the first year, the study found.

• Cases of diabetes associated with COVID-19 infection may be a temporary immune response to the virus, a study finds
• The researchers found that 26 of the 64 who were diagnosed with diabetes after Covid withdrew after being released from the hospital
• Only five of the patients still needed insulin a year later, and researchers suspect that these patients had undiagnosed cases of diabetes before Covid
• Temporary cases of diabetes may be the result of an immune response to the virus

from Mansour Shahin, US Deputy Health Editor for Dailymail.Com

Published: 22:20 GMT, March 1, 2022 | Updated: 22:21 GMT, March 1, 2022

Diabetes caused by Covid may be a temporary reaction of the body to the virus, rather than a constant development of the disease, a new study finds.

Boston – based research team from Massachusetts The General Hospital, Harvard University and Boston Children’s Hospital found that in most people who suffer from diabetes after infection, their blood sugar returns to normal shortly after infection.

About 50 percent of patients who were suddenly diagnosed with diabetes had a decision after being discharged from the hospital.

Less than ten percent of patients in the study who needed insulin still needed insulin a year later.

There is also the possibility that many people suddenly diagnosed with diabetes when they were hospitalized with Covid actually already had the condition and simply did not know it.

Researchers have found that cases of diabetes caused by an immune response to COVID-19 are often resolved quickly. The small number of cases requiring long-term care are probably people who already had diabetes that they did not know about, researchers speculate (photo file)

Researchers who published their findings last month in Journal of Diabetes and Complicationscollected data from 1,902 patients with Covid from the first two waves of the pandemic from March to September 2020.

Patients were also followed up again in July 2021.

Of the study group, 594 showed signs of diabetes and 77 had a new diagnosis believed to be related to their Covid infection.

These 77 patients generally had more severe cases of Covid than the other 500 in the diabetes group, but their blood sugar levels were relatively lower.

“Diabetes diagnosed with COVID-19 is associated with lower glucose but higher inflammatory markers and intensive care, suggesting that stress hyperglycemia is a major physiological mechanism,” the researchers wrote.

Of the 77 people who were diagnosed with diabetes after Covid’s stay, 64 survived the infection and were followed by researchers 30 days later, and 26 regressed to normal blood sugar or prediabetes levels.

Of the remaining group, 36 continue to suffer from diabetes, and two cannot be classified.

Following nearly a year later, 16 members of the diabetes group lived well without the need for medication.

Only five needed plain insulin to survive, while 15 managed their condition with oral medications.

Although the acute form of Covid is likely to cause patients to suffer a spike in blood sugar as some kind of inflammatory response, researchers do not believe there is a high risk that it will be permanent.

They even suggest that many of these people may have had unknown cases of diabetes even before they were infected and only found out after they arrived at the hospital for treatment and were tested.

“It was estimated that there were 10 individuals in this cohort [Covid-caused diabetes] from their reception teams, but it was found that there was evidence of previous hyperglycemia in a detailed review of the chart, including a review of outpatient records, the researchers wrote.

People with diabetes are significantly more at risk of severe Covid infection than others, making this suspicion even more likely.

It is also likely that some people with long-term diabetes are in the ‘long-term Covid’ group, where people experience Covid’s symptoms long after recovery.

Symptoms caused by inflammation, called multisystemic inflammatory syndrome, are among the most common. Researchers believe that this diabetes is the cause of the body’s inflammatory response to Covid.

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