Lithuania hands in note to Russia on war crimes against Ukraine

VILNIUS - Lithuania's Foreign Ministry has handed in a note to Russia, expressing strong protest against the country's ongoing war crimes against Ukraine and its people.

The note was handed over to Alexander Elkin, chargé d'affaires a.i. at the Russian Embassy in Lithuania, the Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.

"As Russia continues its aggression against Ukraine and increasingly shells Ukrainian cities and their inhabitants and critical infrastructure, reports of unarmed Ukrainian prisoners of war being shot by Russian forces and other war crimes are appearing with appalling regularity," the ministry's statement reads

According to the Foreign Ministry, at least three such cases have been recorded over the past two months, involving more than 20 Ukrainian soldiers.

"According to the Geneva Conventions, such treatment of prisoners of war constitutes a war crime. At today's meeting, the representative of the Russian Federation was told that if the Russian leadership and law enforcement authorities do not take action to investigate and prevent these crimes, they will be considered accomplices to these crimes," the ministry said.

Russian diplomats will also have to share responsibility as they continue to justify the Kremlin's military aggression against Ukraine and through their active or passive efforts they are "washing away the Russian Federation's responsibility for the many war crimes committed and still being committed by its military forces".

The Foreign Ministry once again called on Russia to immediately cease its illegal aggression against Ukraine, to halt all hostilities, to withdraw its armed forces from the entire territory of Ukraine and to compensate Ukraine for all the damage caused by Russia's military aggression.