Senior EU officials have backed Britain’s calls for a prosecution of Russian atrocities by the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said she was “shocked by reports of untold horror” and called for an “independent inquiry”. Charles Michel, the leader of the European Council, said the EU would help the Ukrainian authorities gather evidence and set up a case against Russian war crimes. Jean-Yves Le Drian, a veteran French foreign minister, said Paris would support Kyiv and Western governments to “ensure that these acts do not go unpunished”. Anthony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, said: “You can not see these images as a punch in the gut. “From the aggression, we came out and said that we believe that the Russian forces have committed war crimes. We are working to document this, to provide the information we have in the relevant instructions and the organizations that will put it all. And there must be responsibility. for this”.
