More than 1,000 people have been officially accused of committing war crimes on the territory of Ukraine, Serhii Panteleev, the first deputy chief of the investigative department of the National Police of Ukraine, told Agerpres.

According to him, the Ukrainian authorities have gathered enough evidence and completed the investigation into more than 1,000 cases of war crimes committed by Russian soldiers since the start of the war.

Of the total number of soldiers accused of war crimes, more than 100 were already in the custody of the Ukrainian authorities

“The purpose of the investigative department is not only to establish a crime, collect evidence, examine corpses and conduct examinations. The final result should be the identification of the war criminal and the collection of evidence to be able to In a short period of time, after the liberation of the occupied territories, evidence was collected and together with the prosecutor’s office we brought charges against more than 1,000 war criminals from the Russian Federation,” Panteleev said.

He emphasized that out of the total number of soldiers accused of war crimes, more than 100 are already in the custody of the Ukrainian authorities. An official of the National Police of Ukraine clarifies that officially accused persons will not be subject to the exchange of prisoners from the Russian Federation.

He admits that the most serious incidents took place in the territories occupied by Russian troops, but especially in the cities located to the northwest of Kyiv, as well as in the Kharkiv region.

“The facts were more vivid in the settlements that were occupied by the Russian military. For the first time we came across such cases in April of this year, when our military was liberating the Kyiv region. We came to the place and saw what they managed to do in Irpin, Bucha, Gostomel , I think everyone knows about what happened in these cities, I saw all these crimes that I talked about, in addition, I saw mass burials, at the time, who did the exhumation, I found that many of the bodies were hands were mutilated, shot in the back of the head, and after a forensic medical examination was taken, it was confirmed that the victims were also subjected to torture before being killed. We encountered such crimes at the moment when our military liberated the territories of Kharkiv. We were the first to arrive at the scene, began to organize the work of forensic experts, who helped us collect all the necessary evidence, and saw only in Izyum, in the city – a mass grave in which more than 500 people were buried. There we also found more than 25 places torture of civilians whom they illegally detained,” the Ukrainian officer added.

He claims that many of the victims died while trying to escape in their cars from the Russian military.

“Also, we have had several cases where civilians were found shot dead in their cars as they tried to evacuate their settlements, even though the cars were clearly marked as carrying children. It was written in capital letters. They fired at all convoys of vehicles. and throughout the Kharkiv region we have more than 25 dead in eight cars that were moving. Unfortunately, no one survived. Among them are 12 very young children,” said the deputy head of the investigative department.

The Ukrainian police officer assures that the perpetrators of war crimes will be punished sooner or later, noting that such actions are not provided for by law.

“The perpetrators will receive the most severe punishment. From a legal point of view, there is no statute of limitations for these crimes that they have committed or are committing. We will be looking for them, and if we fail to catch them, our children and other generations will. These crimes carry the maximum penalty – life imprisonment,” the investigator noted.

Serhiy Panteleev claims that not only military personnel who committed such actions during the occupation of Ukrainian territories are accused of war crimes, but also those who launch rocket attacks on Ukrainian cities from the territory of the Russian Federation or from the occupied territories.