PUTIN ACCUSED OF WAR CRIMES

VLADIMIR PUTIN and his military commanders were today accused of committing war crimes amid claims that increasingly horrific weapons and more indiscriminate air strikes were now being unleashed by Russian forces.

- Nicholas Cecil

Justice Secretary Dominic Raab said that those responsible for war crimes faced being dragged before a court as Nazi leaders were at the Nuremberg trials after the Second World War.

Breaches of the laws of war, he added, would be documented and recorded as shocking new video footage and reports were coming out of Ukraine of civilian areas being hit by air strikes.

As the world reeled in horror at atrocities being committed, it emerged that five members of one family, including Sofia Fedko, aged six, were killed in southern Ukraine on the first day of the invasion last Thursday as Russian troops advanced from annexed Crimea towards the city of Kherson.

With bombardments now escalating in Ukraine, Boris Johnson said on a visit to Warsaw, Poland, this morning: “It’s clear that Vladimir Putin is prepared to use barbaric and indiscriminate tactics against innocent civilians to bomb tower blocks, to send missiles into tower blocks, to kill children, as we are seeing in increasing numbers.”

Hundreds of civilians have been killed in the conflict already, according to reports by the Ukrainian authorities which could not be confirmed. Mr Raab stated that the International Criminal Court prosecutor in The Hague was already looking at claims of war crimes. “The UK, in whatever form is necessary, will play its role as we have done over many years since right way back to Nuremberg, to make sure that anyone committing these egregious crimes will be held to account,” he told Times Radio.