The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is paying a visit to the international city of peace and justice on Thursday (4 May).
President Zelensky is understood to have arrived in The Hague, The Netherlands, at 7am on Thursday after having met with the leaders of Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland in Helsinki the day before.
Zelensky's first engagement on Thursday was to give a speech to the first and second chambers of the Dutch parliament. The Dutch public broadcaster NOS reports that some 75 MPs were present for the speech in which Zelensky thanked The Netherlands for its support for Ukraine, and noted that he found it special that his visit coincides with the Dutch national Remembrance of the Dead day.
The Netherlands' Nationale Dodenherdenking commemorates all civilians and members of the armed forces of the Kingdom of the Netherlands who have died in wars or peacekeeping missions since the beginning of the Second World War.
Visit to the International Criminal Court, "No Peace without Justice for Ukraine"
Zelensky then made a quick visit to the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is based in The Hague. On 17 March, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of "the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation". You can read more about this here.
After the short visit to the ICC, Zelensky then went to the World Forum in which he gave a speech entitled "No Peace without Justice for Ukraine".
He began by saying that "we all want to see a different Vladimir here", adding that the Russian President is "the one who deserves to be sentenced for criminal actions in the capital of international law."
"If you look at any war of aggression, they all have one thing in common - the perpetrator of the war did not believe they would have to stand to answer for what they did," he continued.
Zelensky also accused Russia of committing over 6,000 war crimes in April alone, and led a minute's silence in in memory of the lives lost following the invasion.
On his part, the Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said that The Netherlands will continue to support Ukraine.
It is also expected that President Zelensky will meet with the Dutch and Belgian Prime Ministers, Mark Rutte and Alexander de Croo.
