US accuses Russia of committing “crimes against humanity”
Russia committed “crimes against humanity” in its war in Ukraine, the US vice president said on Saturday. Kamala Harrisin his speech at the Security Conference in Munich, an international forum that brings together leaders, politicians and experts from some 100 countries and to which Moscow was not invited for the first time in two decades.
“The United States formally established that Russia committed crimes against humanity in Ukraine,” Harris said.
“We have examined the evidence, we know the legal norms and there is no doubt that these are crimes against humanity”he stressed.
The vice president cited cases of summary executions, torture and rape by Russian forces in Ukraine, as well as “the transfer of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian civilians” to Russia.
“I affirm to all those who have perpetrated these crimes and to their superiors or accomplices: you will answer“he added, in statements reproduced by the AFP news agency.
This is the first time the United States has formally designated Russia as a country that committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine since the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022.
In a separate statement, the head of US diplomacy, Antony Blinken, assured that “these are not random or isolated acts”, and spoke of a “widespread and systematic attack by the Kremlin against the civilian population in Ukraine”.
It also stresses that, by using this classification of crimes against humanity, the United States undertakes that those members of the Russian forces and others responsible, who are not yet identified, “account for their actions” before justice.
“There can be no impunity for these crimes,” Blinken concludes.
Since the start of the invasion, the United States has documented or cataloged more than 30,600 cases of war crimes committed by Russian forces in Ukraine, the US State Department said.
On the second day of the Munich conference, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called for more military support for Kiev, saying that this will be the only way to stop Russian President Vladimir Putin’s advances.
“We must give Ukraine what it needs to win and prevail as a sovereign and independent nation in Europe,” he said.
“The biggest risk of all is that Putin wins. If Putin wins in Ukraine, the message to him and other authoritarian leaders will be that they can use force to get whatever they want,” he said.
The Kremlin mobilizes “hundreds of thousands of troops” and is getting “more weapons from authoritarian countries like Iran and North Korea”, Stoltenberg stressed.
For her part, speaking this Saturday at the Munich Security Conference, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, called on the Western allies to “redouble efforts” in military support for Ukraine.
“We must redouble and continue the massive support necessary to derail Putin’s imperialist plans,” he said.
“It is time to speed up, because Ukraine needs equipment to survive,” insisted the president of the Commission, the Executive arm of the European Union (EU).
Within this framework, the members of the EU are studying the possibility of making joint purchases of ammunition for Ukraine.
On the contrary, the Colombian vice president, France Marquezasked this Saturday in Munich to have a demilitarized vision of security issues.
“Continuing to discuss who loses and who wins in a war is not good. We have all lost and who loses in a war is humanity,” he said at a round table.
“Today, a large part of the world feels insecure. But I think a deeper reflection is necessary. Because security is not resolved with weapons,” he added.
Márquez also referred to other factors that cause insecurity, such as the climate crisis with all its consequences, the migration crisis and inequality.
“A new world order has to put life at the center and it is not militarization. We do not take any side on the war, because the war has destroyed humanity,” he said.
