A delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), including Croatia's Davor Ivo Stier as PACE vice-chair on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, visited Ukraine to gather information on possible war crimes and crimes against humanity, the parliament said on Wednesday.

During the visit from 27 to 29 June, the delegation visited Bucha and Irpin, Kyiv suburbs previously occupied by Russian forces, and MEP Stier also met with Croatian Ambassador to Ukraine Anica Djamic.

“The purpose of the visit was to establish the facts and gather information on possible war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the war of aggression launched by the Russian Federation against Ukraine,” the Croatian parliament said.

According to the same source, Stier and the other members of the delegation met with senior representatives of the Ukrainian parliament, the state prosecutor in charge of war crimes, representatives of the ministries of foreign affairs and justice, and representatives of leading NGOs.

After the visit, the delegation expressed shock at the evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity, condemning the war as unfounded and the brutal aggression as a clear and grave violation of international law, and pledged determination to fight impunity and achieve just redress for Ukraine.

The Ukrainian hosts told PACE that one of the priorities would be to establish an ad hoc international tribunal to prosecute the crimes of this aggression, as proposed by the Parliamentary Assembly in April, and that the second priority would be to set up a reparation commission authorised to seize certain Russian property to finance the reconstruction of Ukraine.