Russia's shelling of Irpin apartment complex to be submitted to International Criminal Court

Ukraine's police are preparing to hand over a case of the Russian artillery attacks on a residential neighborhood in Irpin, Kyiv Oblast, to the International Criminal Court (ICC), according to Serhiy Panteleyev, the First Deputy Chief of the Main Investigation Department of the National Police. This is one of Ukraine's many cases against Russia amid the ongoing Russian aggression.

The case in question concerns the shelling of Irpin's neighborhood Rich Town. The investigators managed to establish a timeline of all events that occurred starting from February 24. It was the Rich Town's premises at which the Russian troops fired their first 82-millimeter mortar shell.

The fire was conducted from a location in a nearby town of Bucha, where, according to locals, the invaders held hostage about 140 people in one of neighborhoods for about a week, Zmina reports.

In Irpin, the Rich Town's residents were hiding in the basements, preparing food on the fires near their entrances to the apartment block. In their conversations with the investigators, everyone confirmed that no Ukrainian military or territorial defense members were present in the area when the Russian fire attacks took place.

"And the Armed forces of the Russian Federation as they captured a base in the city of Bucha - just 1,000 meters away from this neighborhood - fired at the residential neighborhood Rich Town every day using tanks and artillery pieces," Panteleyev said.

Map showing the locations of Russian fire positions used to attack the Rich Town neighborhood in Irpin. Image: National Police

The Prosecutor-General's Office is currently finalizing this case in order to file it to the ICC.

"Our investigators continue their work. The most experienced investigators, experts, forensic scientists, and prosecutors work on all cases,” Panteleyev says.

In total, investigators inspected bodies of 269 people killed in Irpin, interviewed 117 residents who remained in the city during the Russian occupation, and identified seven places of summary executions. All bodies have already been transferred to conduct appropriate forensic examinations and determine the causes of death. After that, the bodies will be handed over to relatives for burial.

As it was reported earlier, the police reported suspected violation the laws and customs of war by almost 200 Russian servicemen.