18 ()
The vice president of the United States, Kamala Harris, has assured this Saturday that Russia has committed, “formally” and “without any doubt”, crimes against humanity during its invasion of Ukraine.
“The United States has formally determined that Russia has committed crimes against humanity,” Harris said during his appearance this Saturday at the Munich Security Conference.
The Biden Administration formally concluded last March that Russian troops had committed war crimes in Ukraine. An accusation of crimes against humanity goes a step further, stressing that attacks against the civilian population are being carried out “in a generalized and systematic manner”, according to the principles of the Rome Statute that support the International Criminal Court.
Harris, in this sense, has singled out Russian forces for carrying out attacks of this exact nature against the civilian population, from executions to beatings to electrocutions.
In his speech, Harris cited specific examples such as indiscriminate attacks against civilians, including the bombing of a maternity hospital that killed a pregnant mother and a theater in Mariupol that killed hundreds of people.
Likewise, the vice president has accused Russia of “forcibly deporting hundreds of thousands of people from Ukraine, including children, all separated from their families.”
“For all of this, and in the case of Russia’s actions in Ukraine, we have examined the evidence, we know the legal standards and it is, without a doubt, crimes against humanity.”
“And I say to all those who have perpetrated these crimes, and to their superiors who are complicit in these crimes, they will be held accountable,” the US vice president added in her speech before reiterating her full support for the Ukrainian forces.
“There will be more dark days in Ukraine. The daily agony will continue,” he declared before addressing the President of Russia directly, Vladimir Putin. “If you think you can hold out, you are very wrong. Time is not on your side,” said the US vice president.
Shortly after, the Secretary of State of the United States, Antony Blinken, has influenced the distinction of the charges in a statement in which he has reiterated the formal accusation against Moscow for attacks that “are not random or spontaneous”; Rather, they are part of a “systematic Kremlin operation against the civilian population of Ukraine.”
“We have reserved determinations of crimes against humanity for the most heinous crimes. Today’s determination underscores the staggering extent of human suffering inflicted by Moscow on the Ukrainian civilian population,” added the Secretary of State.
“This determination also reflects the deep commitment of the United States to hold members of the Russian forces and other Russian officials accountable for their atrocities against the people of Ukraine,” it added.
