US Vice President Kamala Harris has for the first time accused Russia of carrying out “crimes against humanity” since the start of its invasion of Ukraine nearly a year ago, warning that those responsible will have to “to realize”.
Speaking at the Munich (Germany) Security Conference, Kamala Harris, a former prosecutor, made a chilling enumeration of abuses attributed to Moscow, citing systematic bombings targeting civilians and critical infrastructure, torture and rape attributed to Russian soldiers, the deportations of Ukrainians to Russia, including thousands of children separated from their families.
“We have examined the evidence, we know the legal standards and there is no doubt: these are crimes against humanity”, she said. Since the start of the invasion, the United States has documented or listed more than 30,600 cases of war crimes committed by Russian forces in Ukraine, the US State Department said.
War in Ukraine: our special file
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kouleba praised the American position and blamed Moscow again “genocidal war” in Ukraine, during a press conference on the sidelines of the Conference. However, he said he fears that it may not be possible to gather enough evidence to prosecute. “specific individuals” having committed “atrocities”.
kyiv has called for the establishment of a special tribunal to try Russia’s top officials, but its exact form raises complex legal questions.
“The biggest risk is that Putin wins”
Gathered in Munich on the sidelines of the Conference, the heads of diplomacy of the great powers of the G7 reaffirmed in a parallel press release their “unwavering solidarity with Ukraine for as long as necessary” almost a year after the launch of the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022.
Earlier, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned of Ukraine’s defeat as Russia mobilizes “hundreds of thousands of troops”.
“The biggest risk of all is that Putin wins. If Putin wins in Ukraine, the message for him and other authoritarian leaders will be that they can use force to get what they want”he warned.
Emmanuel Macron has certainly reaffirmed that he wanted ” the defeat “ of Moscow but warned those who want “First of all crush Russia”which will not be ” Never “ there “France’s stance”.
“I am convinced that in the end, it will not end militarily”he said in Munich in an interview with a group of journalists. “All options other than Vladimir Putin within the current system” him “seem worse” than the Russian president, he added.
The Munich meeting also allowed an interview between the head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi during which the Secretary of State warned against “implications and consequences” for China if it turns out that it brings a “material support” to Russia in its war in Ukraine, according to the State Department.
The role of China in question
Previously, Kamala Harris had made it known that her country was “troubled by the fact that Beijing has deepened its relations with Moscow since the beginning of the war”.
‘Any move by China to provide lethal support to Russia would only reward aggression, continue the killings and further undermine a rules-based order’warned the vice-president.
The Europeans hope to convince Beijing to use its influence on the master of the Kremlin to end the war.
China must “play a responsible role” in the current situation, judged the British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Wang Yi presented his country as a champion of ” peace “ and reiterated in Munich that he was returning to Moscow and kyiv from “sit around the table and find” an issue ” policy “ to the conflict.
The era of war: where is the Ukrainian conflict heading?
No signs of easing are in sight in the conflict which has seen Russian troops seize nearly a fifth of Ukrainian territory and claim tens of thousands of victims on both sides.
On Saturday, the Russian army claimed the rare capture of a locality in the Kharkiv region, in northeastern Ukraine, where its troops have gone on the offensive for a few weeks, in parallel with its offensives around of Bakhmout and Vougledar.
A prolonged war awaited by the Ukrainians and their allies
The general feeling on the Allied and Ukrainian side is that the war is likely to be prolonged. It is essential to “redouble efforts” in military support to kyiv by accelerating the production of standard armaments, such as ammunition, including kyiv “desperately needs”said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
EU members are currently exploring ways to make joint ammunition purchases for Ukraine, according to diplomatic sources in Brussels.
Also on the sidelines of the Conference, former world chess champion and opponent of Vladimir Putin, Garry Kasparov, considered that a Ukrainian victory was the “pre-condition of democracy in Russia”claiming that“no expense (of Westerners) is excessive for Ukraine”.
The allies support the Ukrainians through financial, humanitarian and military aid, including heavy Western-made tanks even if they are slow to arrive on the ground, and through drastic economic sanctions against Russia.
