A war crimes investigation has begun after Boris Johnson accused Vladimir Putin of committing atrocities by bombarding cities in his invasion of Ukraine.
Speaking during PMQs on Wednesday, the prime minister condemned Russia’s “abhorrent assault on a sovereign nation”.
“What we have seen already from Vladimir Putin’s regime, in the use of the munitions they have been dropping on innocent civilians, in my view already fully qualifies as a war crime,” Johnson said.
It is the first time the British government has accused Putin of being a war criminal.
Hours later, the International Criminal Court (ICC) opened an investigation on after Britain and 37 allies referred Russia over the attacks.
The move came as Ukraine’s capital Kyiv braced for a siege, its second-largest city Kharkiv reeled from further strikes and the control of port city Kherson was contested by the Russian military.
More than 2,000 civilians have died since the invasion began, Ukraine’s state emergency service said, although that figure has not been independently verified.
The United Nations’ refugee agency believes more than 934,000 people have fled Ukraine and the figure is soon expected to reach a million.
Johnson told MPs he had also promised Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy the UK would “accelerate” the delivery of weapons to aid the defence of his country.
It comes as Russian strikes that damaged the Babi Yar Holocaust memorial in Kyiv and the central square in Kharkiv have caused revulsion.
Western allies fear it is a sign of a shift in Russian tactics towards indiscriminate targeting of urban areas.
Earlier, defence secretary Ben Wallace told Sky News Russia planned to “carpet-bomb cities, indiscriminately in some cases”.
On BBC Radio 4’s Today he warned Russian forces would “pummel these cities with artillery and then hope to break the city”.
ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said work would begin “immediately”, with his team already collecting evidence, after the co-ordinated referral freed him to get to work without the need for judicial approval.
Moscow’s international isolation was further displayed when the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to demand it immediately withdraws its military from Ukraine, with 141 nations backing the motion and only five, including alleged co-aggressor Belarus, opposing it.