Is Putin committing war crimes in Ukraine? Likely, observers say

• Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the overnight attack on Kharkiv “a war crime.”
• The chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court said he plans to open an investigation “as rapidly as possible” into possible war crimes in Ukraine.
• “Is Vladimir Putin committing a war crime? Yes. It’s very clear,” said one retired international war crimes prosecutor.

WASHINGTON – Russian troops have killed hundreds of civilians, including more than a dozen children, and shelled apartment buildings and neighborhoods in their assault on Ukraine, realities that qualify Russian President Vladimir Putin as a war criminal, observers say.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described Putin’s overnight attack on the residential center of Ukraine’s second-largest city as “frank, undisguised terror. Nobody will forgive. Nobody will forget. This attack on Kharkiv is a war crime.”