The United States has determined that Russia has committed “crimes against humanity” during the The invasion of Ukraine lasted almost a yearUS Vice President Kamala Harris said.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, days before the anniversary of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Harris said Russian forces had launched “widespread and systematic” attacks on the common people of the country.
“In the case of Russian actions in Ukraine, we have reviewed the evidence, we know the legal standards and there is no doubt: these are crimes against humanity,” said Harris, a former prosecutor said.
“And I say to all those who have committed these crimes, and to their superiors who are complicit in these crimes, you will be held accountable.”
The Biden administration officially determined in March last year that the Russian military had committed war crimes in Ukraine and said it would cooperate with others to prosecute the offenders.
The identification of crimes against humanity goes a step further, showing that attacks against civilians are being carried out in a widespread and systematic manner.
Harris listed a series of abuses she said were perpetrated by Moscow’s forces in Ukraine – “terrible acts of murder, torture, rape and deportation, execution-style murder , beatings and electric shocks”.
In his remarks, Harris cited dozens of victims found in the Bucha shortly after the Russian invasion last February; March 9 bombing Maternity Mariupol hospital, killing three people, including a child; and the sexual assault of a four-year-old child by a Russian soldier has been identified by the United Nations in a report.
According to the US government, organizations supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) have recorded more than 30,000 war crimes since the invasion. Ukrainian officials said they were investigating the incident. shelling the city of Bakhmut this week as a possible war crime.
Russia says it is conducting a “special military operation” in Ukraine to eliminate threats to the country’s security and protect Russian speakers, has denied deliberately targeting civilians or commit war crimes.
The official US decision, made at the end of a legal analysis chaired by the State Department, has no immediate consequences for the ongoing war.
But Washington hopes that it can help isolate Russian President Vladimir Putin further and advance legal efforts to hold members of his government accountable through international courts and sanctions. .
The United Nations-backed commission of inquiry into Ukraine has yet to conclude that the war crimes it has identified are crimes against humanity.
Harris’ speech came as senior Western officials met in Munich to assess the conflict. The three-day conference was attended by world leaders, including those from France and Germany, and China’s top diplomat Wang Yi.
She said Russia is now a “weakened” country after Biden led a coalition that punished Putin for aggression, but Moscow has only stepped up its attacks in eastern Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Ukraine is planning an offensive in the coming months under which it is seeking more heavy and long-range weapons from its Western allies.
The nearly year-long war has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced millions from their homes, undermined the global economy and made Putin an outcast in the West.
The Biden administration has sought to bring alleged war criminals to justice, including training Ukrainian investigators, imposing sanctions, blocking visas and increasing penalties under the war crimes laws of the United States.
To date, Washington has spent about $40 million on these efforts and said it is working with Congress to secure an additional $38 million for these efforts.
But the Biden administration’s ability to enforce any such effort outside its borders, and certainly in Russia, is limited. Gathering evidence in the war-torn country has also proved difficult.
International legal authorities are also limited. in International Criminal Court, for example, jurisdiction extends only to member states and countries that have agreed to its jurisdiction, such as Ukraine but not Russia. Kiev has been pushing for a new international war crime organization to focus on the Russian invasion, which Moscow has opposed.
“If Putin thinks he can wait for us to go out, he’s wrong,” Harris said. “Time is not on his side.”
