US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks to the press March 2 in New York. (John Lamparski/NurPhoto/AP)
US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said on Thursday that the actions committed by Russia against the Ukrainian people are “war crimes”.
“They represent war crimes; these are attacks on civilians that cannot be justified in any way,” Linda Thomas-Greenfield said in an interview with BBC Newshour.
State Department spokesman Ned Price declined to call Russia’s actions against Ukrainian civilians “war crimes” during Thursday’s briefing, instead reiterating that the United States “supports efforts to document and investigate reports of potential war crimes in Ukraine.”
“The fact is that we have seen very credible reports of deliberate attacks on civilians that constitute a war crime under the Geneva Conventions,” he said at a State Department briefing on Thursday, citing attacks on a hospital in Mariupol and strikes in schools, hospitals, buses, cars and ambulances.
“We are shocked by the brutal tactics that the Russian Federation and the Kremlin have used in waging this war of choice,” Price said.
Thomas-Greenfield said the question of whether Russia is guilty of war crimes “we get asked every day and we work with other members of the international community to document the crimes that Russia is committing against the Ukrainian people.” ”
In an interview with the BBC, Thomas-Greenfield said she could not predict how war crimes would be prosecuted, but “the important thing is that we collect evidence and have evidence ready and available to use.”
The ambassador also indicated that the US supports the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation into Russia’s actions in Ukraine, despite the fact that the US is not a member of the ICC and criticizes other ICC investigations.
“We have always supported the criminal court taking action when necessary,” she said.
What other US officials say: Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said Sunday the US is looking into “credible reports of deliberate attacks against civilians that constitute a war crime,” but did not say the US had made an assessment of Moscow’s war crimes culpability.
“What we’re doing right now is documenting it all, putting it all together, studying and making sure people and relevant organizations and institutions are investigating whether war crimes have been committed or are being committed, which we can support whatever they do.” , Blinken said on CNN’s State of the Union. “So right now we’re looking at these reports. They are very reliable. And we document everything.”
Meanwhile, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris has refrained from calling Russia’s actions in Ukraine “war crimes” as civilians continue to die in the conflict.
Speaking alongside Polish President Andrzej Duda in Warsaw on Thursday, Harris said: “We are also very clear that any deliberate attack on innocent civilians is a violation.”
She added: “The UN has set up a process where inspections and investigations will be carried out and we will of course be involved as needed.”
The images from Ukraine clearly showed the atrocities taking place even before the investigation had determined what to call them, Harris said.