German Justice minister Marco Buschmann has said that the systemic destruction of energy infrastructure by Russia in Ukraine is a war crime.
His comments follow a meeting with his G7 counterparts on Tuesday. The G7 together with the International Criminal Court and the European Commission discussed strategies on how to tighten war crime probes into atrocities committed on Ukrainian soil by Russia. The goal is to avoid duplicating work and better secure evidence.
“From Berlin, we want to send a clear political signal. The G7 is not just a group made up of great industrial powers. We share fundamental values and reject war crimes,” Buschmann said at the opening of the meeting.
German government holds G7 presidency
The ICC’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, praised the initiative taken by the German government, which holds the G7’s presidency, to incorporate the issue of war crimes on the group’s agenda for the first time.
The Ukrainian Minister of Justice, Denys Malyuska, was also invited to participate in the session.
The ICC opened an investigation into crimes committed in Ukraine in March, at the request of a first group made up of 40 countries, an initiative that has since been joined by other states and international bodies.
Buschmann said that the meeting has sent out the message that “war crimes must not go unpunished.”
It comes as line workers in Ukraine race to repair the nation’s battered power grid following a wave of attacks on critical infrastructure including water and electricity supplies.
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