The International Criminal Court is preparing to investigate possible war crimes in Ukraine, following Russia’s deadly full-scale invasion.

A former United Nations war crimes prosecutor, Dr Shahram Dana, explained military attacks must discriminate against civilians and military objects, which is referred to as the principle of distinction.

“Based on the reporting that we have seen so far, we can say that some of these actions appear to be war crimes,” he told Sofie Formica.

The law lecturer at Griffith University says Russia has claimed the shelling of a maternity and children’s hospital in the city of Mariupol was actually an abandoned site being used as a military headquarters.

“Later, Russia claimed there was no attack at all and the footage we saw was just staged.

“So I guess it remains to determine by factual investigation as to what’s exactly [been] targeted, but if they targeted a children’s hospital or any hospital or civilian structure, that would be a war crime.”

Press PLAY below to hear more of Dr Dana’s explanation of war crimes

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