The Biden administration
has formally concluded that Russia committed crimes against humanity
during its nearly year-long invasion of Ukraine, Kamala Harris has said.
“In the case of Russia’s actions in Ukraine
we have examined the evidence, we know the legal standards, and there
is no doubt: these are crimes against humanity,” the US vice-president
and former prosecutor said in prepared remarks delivered in a speech at
the Munich security conference on Saturday.
“And
I say to all those who have perpetrated these crimes, and to their
superiors who are complicit in those crimes, you will be held to
account.”
The official determination, which
came at the end of a legal and factual analysis led by the US state
department, carries no immediate consequences for the war.
But
Washington hopes it could help further isolate the Russian president,
Vladimir Putin, and galvanise legal efforts to hold members of his
government accountable through international courts and sanctions.
Harris’s speech came as senior western leaders met in Munich to assess Europe’s worst conflict since the second world war.
She said Russia was a “weakened” country after Joe
Biden led a coalition to punish Putin for the invasion, but Russia is
intensifying assaults in Ukraine’s east.
The
war has killed tens of thousands, uprooted millions from their homes,
pummelled the global economy and made Putin a pariah in the west.
Washington had already concluded that Russian forces were guilty of war crimes,
as had a UN-mandated investigation, but the Biden administration
conclusion that Russia’s actions amount to “crimes against humanity”
implies a legal finding that acts from murder to rape are widespread,
systematic and intentionally directed against civilians. In
international law, it is seen as a more serious offence.
The
UN-backed commission of inquiry on Ukraine has not yet concluded that
the war crimes it says it has identified amount to crimes against
humanity.
In her remarks, Harris cited as “barbaric and inhumane” the scores of victims found in Bucha shortly after Russia’s invasion last February; the 9 March bombing of a Mariupol maternity hospital
that killed three people, including a child; and the sexual assault of a
four-year-old by a Russian soldier that was identified by the UN
report.
Organisations supported by the US Agency for
International Development (USAid) have documented more than 30,000 war
crimes incidents since the invasion, according to the US government.
Ukrainian officials said they were investigating the shelling of the
city of Bakhmut this week as a possible war crime.
Russia,
which says it is conducting a “special military operation” in Ukraine
to eliminate threats to its security and to protect Russian speakers,
has denied intentionally targeting civilians or committing war crimes.
Harris said: “Let us all agree: on behalf of all the victims, known and unknown, justice must be served.”
The
Biden administration has sought to bring alleged war criminals to
justice, including training Ukrainian investigators, imposing sanctions,
blocking visas and hiking penalties under US war crimes laws.
Washington has spent $40m (£33m) on the efforts so far and says it is working with Congress to secure an additional $38m.
But
the Biden administration’s ability to enforce any such efforts beyond
its borders – and certainly within Russia – is limited and collecting
evidence in Ukraine has proven difficult.
International
legal bodies are also constrained. At the international criminal court,
for instance, jurisdiction extends only to member states and states
that have agreed to its jurisdiction, such as Ukraine but not Russia.
Kyiv has been pushing for a new international war crimes organisation to
focus on the Russian invasion, which Moscow has opposed.
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