President Biden
Joe Biden Irish PM tests positive for COVID-19 while visiting D.C. CNN anchor breaks down talking to Ukrainian father whose family was murdered Graham introduces resolution calling on Biden to help send planes to Ukraine MORE condemns Russian President Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich PutinRussian journalist explains why she staged a live anti-war protest CNN host can’t stand talking to her Ukrainian father whose family was killed. Criminal” marked a dramatic shift in how the US talks about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
It takes a vigorous, often decades-long legal process to formally label a country’s actions as “war crimes,” and investigators are already beginning to monitor Russia’s behavior.
But experts say the president’s blunt statement to reporters on Wednesday after he resisted using the term for weeks could have more forcefully spurred the international community to further isolate Moscow and raise the price of Russian officials involved in the war against Ukraine.
“The power of the term ‘war criminal’ or ‘war crimes’ is that it serves as a rallying point around which allies can rally,” said Mike Newton, Vanderbilt University law professor and war crimes expert. .
“Essentially, it’s about picking a side. You either side with war criminals and therefore support the killing of civilians, you support war crimes, or you don’t.”
The new presidential rhetoric, which is being echoed by other administration officials, comes as Putin escalates attacks, including targeting apartment buildings, hospitals and shelters, and senior Biden diplomacy and intelligence officials warn that Putin could launch a chemical weapons attack in Ukraine. as he grows more and more desperate against Ukrainian resistance.
Secretary of State Anthony Blinken
UK’s Johnson Anthony Blinken calls for more oil in UAE, Saudi Arabia visits Night defense and national security – Presented by AM General – More weapons but no planes for Ukraine Ukrainian diplomat says Mayor of Melitopol released MORE warned on Thursday that “Moscow can set the stage for the use of chemical weapons and then falsely accuse Ukraine to justify the escalation of its attacks,” and said he agreed with the president’s remarks.
“Intentionally targeting civilians is a war crime,” Blinken told reporters. “After all the devastation of the past three weeks, it’s hard for me to conclude that the Russians are doing otherwise.”
On Thursday, the United Nations said it had counted 2,032 civilian casualties, with 780 killed and 1,252 injured, but believes the actual figure is “significantly higher.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, blacklisted by the US as part of wide-ranging sanctions against supporters of Russia’s war against Ukraine, said Biden’s comment was “unacceptable and unforgivable rhetoric,” the TASS news agency reported.
Blinken said Thursday that international human rights lawyer Beth Van Schaak, who was confirmed by the Senate on Wednesday as Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice, will lead the State Department’s investigation into documenting possible war crimes.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki
Jen PsakiDefense & Homeland Security – Presented by AM General – More weapons but no planes for Ukraine Overnight energy and environment – Biden calls for faster gas price cuts State Department process to determine if Putin committed war crimes ‘may take some time” and did not specify a timeframe.
“It’s a legal process where they look at all the evidence and then provide that evidence, data and information to the international bodies that oversee investigations,” she said on Thursday. “We will support these efforts.”
Reports and footage from the war rocked the world this week, including Russian attacks on civilian targets, kidnappings and hostage taking.
The UN said the casualties were caused by shelling from heavy artillery and multiple launch rocket systems, as well as rocket attacks. The data underlines that US and NATO officials say Russia has used cluster and vacuum bombs, indiscriminate munitions that can cause widespread damage.
Blinken said Russia’s strategy is to “break the will of the Ukrainian people.”
In Mariupol, in the country’s south, this week’s bombing of a Russian theater that sheltered hundreds of civilians and was marked with the words “Children” in Russian sparked international outrage. With more than 100 survivors reportedly escaping from the rubble on Thursday, a bomb shelter under the theater miraculously withstood a Russian attack.
Last week, similar condemnation sparked an attack on a children’s hospital and maternity ward. The Associated Press has documented at least one death of a pregnant woman and her unborn child, who was previously photographed being carried out of the rubble on a stretcher.
The World Health Organization said it was one of 43 hospitals that Russia attacked.
Vice President Harris, speaking to a reporter while in Romania after the maternity ward attack, said: “We are clear that any deliberate attack or attack on civilians is a war crime. Period.”
At least five journalists were killed and others injured while reporting from the ground in Ukraine this month, and Blinken said their deaths, if deliberate, could also constitute a war crime.
Other Russian attacks viewed as potential war crimes include the bombing of civilian infrastructure, residential buildings, communications infrastructure, municipal institutions, attacking and seizing nuclear facilities, and reportedly shooting Ukrainian civilians by Russian soldiers as they tried to flee from military operations.
The brutality in Ukraine has been reported on television, Twitter, Reddit, secure messaging systems and other platforms, making information on the ground widely available. Newton said that means more data for researchers.
“There is a new clarity of information,” he said. “But that just means you have to include these things in your investigations. The fact of the matter is that the political rhetoric of war crimes cannot replace a detailed legal analysis.”
Investigations are already under way in a number of international forums to document and preserve evidence of possible war crimes.
Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Karim A.A. Khan QC announced on February 28 that the court was launching an investigation into whether Russia had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine.
Khan traveled to western Ukraine and Poland on March 15 to “assess the situation on the ground, meet with affected communities and further accelerate our work by engaging with national counterparts,” the statement said.
“If the attacks are deliberately directed against the civilian population: this is a crime that my Office can [investigate] and hold accountable. If the attacks are deliberately directed at civilian targets, including hospitals: this is a crime that my Office can investigate and prosecute.”
On March 4, the UN Human Rights Council voted to establish a “Commission of Inquiry into Ukraine” empowered to investigate all alleged rights violations and abuse crimes and to make recommendations on accountability measures. The resolution also calls for Russia to withdraw its troops from Ukraine.
Thirty-two members voted in favor of the resolution to open an investigation, with only Russia and Eritrea rejecting the measure.
Also on March 4, the 45 member states of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) voted in favor of using the Moscow Mechanism, appointing independent experts to investigate possible gross violations of human rights and war crimes in any of the OSCE member states. The mechanism was created during the OSCE summit in Moscow in 1991.
In addition, the International Court of Justice, the United Nations’ supreme arbiter, on Wednesday called on Russia to immediately end its military operation and withdraw its troops from Ukraine, responding to a complaint filed by Kyiv last month accusing Russia of making false allegations of genocide against Ukraine. justify your intrusion.
The MC has no special powers to force Russia to withdraw, but its decision is seen as yet another place where Moscow finds itself isolated.
Kremlin spokesman Peskov dismissed the court’s decision, telling reporters on Thursday that Russia “cannot take this decision into account.”
Putin could face trial if he is charged with war crimes, likely by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
But this can take decades.
The trial of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein is often used as a modern comparison. He was captured by US forces in Iraq in 2003 and tried by the Iraqi Special Tribunal for crimes against humanity relating to the 1982 massacre of civilians in Dujail, Iraq. He was found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging in 2006.
“The wheels of justice will grind,” Newton said. “I just think we should be in it for the long haul.”