OTTAWA — Canada’s international development minister says Russia’s blocking of humanitarian aid to Ukraine and its bombing of medical facilities should be the subjects of an international war crimes investigation.
Harjit Sajjan is offering that view as a half dozen extra RCMP investigators are bound for The Hague this week to assist in the International Criminal Court investigation of alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity by Russia in its invasion of Ukraine.
Sajjan says civilians should be not be harmed in armed conflict, especially when they are seeking medical aid and food.
Sajjan was speaking ahead of the International Committee of the Red Cross announcing Thursday that it would be ready to start evacuating citizens out of the besieged port city of Mariupol on Friday.
Sajjan says carving out the corridors needed to get humanitarian supplies into Ukraine has been a difficult undertaking, as an estimated 10 million Ukrainians have been forced from their homes.
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino tells The Canadian Press those displaced Ukrainians will become "living witnesses" as the additional RCMP officers join the investigation by the prosecutor’s office of the ICC.
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The flag of Ukraine is seen beside the Peace Tower, on the same day as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s address to Parliament in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on Tuesday, March 15, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
