Croatia has joined the initiative launched by 38 countries asking the International Criminal Court to open an investigation into war crimes committed in Ukraine, the government said on Friday.

The initiative requests that ICC prosecutors investigate war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide believed to have been committed in Ukraine since 21 November 2013.

Although Ukraine is not party to the Rome Statute whereby the ICC was established, it has accepted its jurisdiction over crimes against its citizens of which it accuses Russian officials and officials of the separatist regions in east Ukraine.

Besides Croatia, the initiative has been supported by 38 parties to the Rome Statute – all EU member states except Lithuania, which submitted its own request independently – in addition to Albania, Australia, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Georgia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland and Great Britain.

The UN has documented the deaths of 1,480 civilians in Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion on 24 February.