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'They behave like barbarians': Ukraine's chief war crimes investigator sees few prospects for reconciliation with Russians

Ukraine’s Prosecutor General, Iryna Venediktova, speaks exclusively with USA TODAY from her Kyiv office, on July 1, 2022. Ukraine’s top prosecutor spoke about recent airstrikes on a shopping mall in Kremenchuk and a residential building in Odesa. She also addressed the significant number of war crimes her department is investigating as part of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
  • Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova was speaking exclusively to USA TODAY from her office in Ukraine's capital.
  • Russia has appeared to step up its bombing campaign and there were several especially deadly assaults on civilian targets recently..
  • She is the first woman in Ukraine to hold her job.

KYIV, Ukraine – As Russia has escalated its use of imprecise Soviet-era missiles against civilian infrastructure, Ukraine's top legal official said she doesn't see how ordinary Ukrainians and Russians can reconcile until Moscow "asks for forgiveness, pays reparations to the state" and ensures "all its war criminals are in prison."

Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova was speaking exclusively to USA TODAY from her office in Ukraine's capital, where she is coordinating the work of hundreds of Ukrainian and international war crimes investigators and specialists. Her aim is to hold Russia's military and senior officials accountable for alleged indiscriminate missile strikes and shelling, civilian assassinations, torture, sexual violence, repeated assaults on hospitals, and denial of food, water and humanitarian aid. 

Four months after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, in a major escalation of a war that began in 2014, many cities across the country are still being pounded daily by Russian air and sea strikes, rocket artillery and cluster munitions.