MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th May, 2023) The Netherlands sees prosecution centers investigating alleged crimes committed during the conflict in Ukraine as an important first step toward holding Russia to account, Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said Thursday.
"We in the Netherlands strongly support accountability initiatives. It's why we sent forensic investigation teams to Ukraine, and it's why we're ready and willing to host prosecution centres, damage registries, and courts here in The Hague," he said.
"These are important steps. But these are only first steps," Hoekstra told a news conference in The Hague, the seat of several tribunals, which is hosting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Russia has denied accusations of war crimes leveled against it by the Ukrainian government and its Western backers. It has also rejected the jurisdiction of the Hague-based International Criminal Court after it issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin in March, in a rare move that the Kremlin said was based on a trumped-up charge.
