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Security aid continues to flow unabated to Ukraine, with another shipment arriving in the past 24 hours, a senior US defense official said Monday, adding that alleged atrocities by Russian forces against civilians in Bucha are being investigated as “war crimes”. should .”
“Everything we do in relation to Ukraine is accelerated — everything,” a senior defense official told reporters Monday, adding that US officials “are not exactly sure what the long-term goal for Mr. Putin is.”
The Biden administration on Friday announced $300 million in security and deadly aid, separate from the $800 million previously approved. The additional aid will be used to buy weapons from defense contractors, an official said.
“We are aggressively pursuing this,” the official added.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin speaks during a press conference at the Pentagon on Jan. 28, 2022. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Officials said Monday that the US has been coordinating security aid packages from half a dozen other countries to Ukraine over the past 24 hours.
Officials also said there have been shipments of weapons purchased from the original $800 million in military aid Biden announced last month, all within the past 24 hours.
“We’re moving as fast as we can,” an official said.
Meanwhile, senior defense officials said there was clear evidence Russia had committed war crimes and called for further investigations into the attacks on civilians.
Ukrainian officials said the bodies of 410 civilians were found in towns in the Kyiv area that were recently recaptured by Russian forces. More than 100 civilians were found buried in mass graves in Bucha alone.
WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES
Bodies lie in a mass grave in Bucha on the outskirts of Kyiv in Ukraine on Sunday. (AP/Rodrigo Abd)
“It’s disgusting,” said one official. “It’s disgusting.”
The official added, “We believe it should be added to the war crimes allegations and investigated.”
The comments and additional help come after residents of Bucha gave harrowing reports of Russian troops shooting and killing civilians for no apparent reason.
Russia is facing a rapidly escalating international outcry as more and more horrific images and stories of alleged atrocities against Ukrainian civilians surface.
President Biden on Monday called for an “actual war crimes trial” as evidence of atrocities against Ukrainian civilians in Bucha emerged over the weekend, but denied the attacks amounted to “genocide” and again labeled Russian President Vladimir Putin a “war criminal.”
BIDEN CALLS FOR WAR CRIMES TRIAL IN UKRAINE, PROVES ‘GENOCIDE’ IN BUCHA
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, center left, surveys the site of a recent battle in Bucha near Kyiv, Ukraine Monday April 4, 2022. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
“He’s a war criminal,” Biden said of Putin Monday morning after returning to Washington DC, promising that the United States “will continue to provide Ukraine with the weapons it needs to continue the fight.”
The president added that Putin “should be held accountable” and said the United States must “receive all the details for this to be an actual war crimes trial.”
“This guy is brutal,” Biden said. “What is happening in Bucha is outrageous and everyone saw it – I think it’s a war crime.”
When asked about additional sanctions, Biden said he was seeking “more sanctions” against Russia and would “add more sanctions.”
Over the weekend, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the attacks amounted to “genocide” in an interview with CBS’s Face the Nation.
Asked Monday if he agreed with Zelenskyy’s characterization of a “genocide,” Biden replied, “No, I think it’s a war crime.”
Genocide is a form of war crime under international law.
WORLD LEADERS RESPONSE TO BUCHA MASSACRE IN UKRAINE: ‘GENOCIDE’, ‘DEGRADEABLE’, ‘HORRIBLE’
GRAPHIC CONTENT – Lifeless bodies of men, some with their hands tied behind their backs, lie on the ground in Bucha, Ukraine, Sunday April 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch documented evidence of summary executions, unlawful violence and threats against civilians, and repeated rapes between February 27 and March 14. A report by the organization also implicates Russian soldiers in looting civilian property, including food, clothing and firewood.
Under international humanitarian law, belligerent forces are responsible for war crimes if they are found to have committed the premeditated killing, rape, torture or other inhumane treatment of captured civilians and detained combatants.
Russian troops had rolled into Bucha in the early days of the invasion and stayed until March 30th.
Russia denies anything related to the widespread killing of Ukrainian civilians. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday that “we categorically deny the allegations.”
The Russian Defense Ministry claimed in a statement that new photos and videos of the bodies “were staged by the Kiev regime for Western media”.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov pauses during a news conference in Moscow November 30, 2021. (Press service of the Russian Foreign Ministry via AP)
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And Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called the attacks “fake”.
“Recently, another fake (news) attack was carried out in the city of Bucha, Kyiv region, after the Russian military left in accordance with the plans and agreements,” Lavrov said. “A few days later, a fake (video) was staged, which is now being circulated through all media channels and social media by the Ukrainian representatives and their Western patrons.”