United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced on Thursday that he agrees with President Joe Biden’s assessment of Russian military activities in Ukraine as “war crimes” and announced that the United States is collecting evidence that may be used in the International Criminal Court to prove that Putin broke international law.
During a speech at the United States Department of State headquarters in Washington, D.C., Blinken stressed the seriousness of Russia’s possible war crimes in major population centers of Ukraine. Among those possible crimes are missile attacks against hospitals in Mariupol and Kyiv, and the bombardment of residential buildings across the country.
“Yesterday, President Biden said that in his opinion, war crimes have been committed in Ukraine,” he said. “Personally, I agree, intentionally targeting civilians is a war crime. After all the destruction of the past three weeks, I find it difficult to conclude that the Russians are doing otherwise.”
During the speech, he also confirmed that American experts are compiling evidence to “help international efforts to investigate war crimes and hold those responsible accountable,” adding that the United States is working with civil rights organizations and campaigners all over the world – as well as media outlets – to compile the evidence. The efforts are being led by Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice, Beth Van Schaak.
Kremlin Hits Back Over War Crime Accusations in Ukraine
On Wednesday, the Kremlin hit back over accusations of war crimes, accusing the United States of having no authority to make such claims after years of engaging in foreign wars.
“Our president is a very wise, prescient, and cultured international figure and head of the Russian Federation, our head of state,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
“Such statements by Mr Biden are absolutely impermissible, unacceptable and unforgivable. The main thing is that the head of a state which has for many years bombed people across the world,” he added. “The president of such a country has no right to make such statements.”
Petkov wasn’t just referencing America’s presence in Afghanistan, but also harked back to the United States’ bombing of Japan in 1945. The nuclear attacks destroyed Nagasaki and Hiroshima, effectively ending the Second World War.
Jack Buckby is a British author, counter-extremism researcher, and journalist based in New York. Reporting on the U.K., Europe, and the U.S., he works to analyze and understand left-wing and right-wing radicalization, and reports on Western governments’ approaches to the pressing issues of today. His books and research papers explore these themes and propose pragmatic solutions to our increasingly polarized society.
