(Washington) The US government “has established that members of the Russian forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday.
Posted at 2:17 p.m.
Updated at 3:05 p.m.
The United States is relying on “a careful review of available information from public and intelligence sources,” Blinken said in a statement, adding that it would be up to the courts to determine legal liability.
“We have seen numerous credible reports of indiscriminate attacks and attacks deliberately targeting civilians, as well as other atrocities,” the US foreign minister added, citing the destruction of “residential buildings, schools, hospitals, essential facilities, civilian vehicles, shopping malls and ambulances”, which resulted in “thousands of deaths and injuries”.
Many of these sites were “clearly identified as being used by civilians”, he explained, referring to the bombardment of a maternity ward and a theater where women and children were sheltering, and in front of which the word “children” was painted in giant letters, in the strategic city of Mariupol, besieged by the Russian army.
As of March 22, more than 2,400 civilians have been killed in Mariupol, he said, quoting officials from the port city.
About 200,000 people still live in this encircled city which has been bombarded daily since Russia launched its offensive on February 24. This siege is a form of “genocide”, for her part told AFP on Tuesday the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Iryna Venediktova.
The Russian army “used the same tactic in Grozny, Chechnya, and in Aleppo, Syria, where it intensified its bombardment of cities to break the will of the population”, denounced Mr. Blinken.
US President Joe Biden has already called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “war criminal”, and the European Union has also referred to “a major war crime” in Mariupol.