Vice President Kamala Harris said Saturday that the U.S. has concluded that Russia has been perpetrating crimes against humanity in its war in Ukraine.
“From the starting days of this unprovoked war, we have witnessed Russian forces engage in horrendous atrocities and war crimes,” Harris said the annual Munich Security Conference. “We have examined the evidence, we know the legal standards, and there is no doubt: These are crimes against humanity.”
Harris listed some of the horrific acts which the Russian forces have been responsible for, including an attack on a maternity hospital, rape, torture and executions of civilians, and the bombing of a Mariupol theater, which was used as an air raid shelter. Russia should expect to be held accountable for its egregious offenses, Harris said.
“Let us all agree on behalf of all the victims, both known and unknown, justice must be served,” she said.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed Saturday in a statement that the evidence of Russia’s guilt is overwhelming.
“We reserve crimes against humanity determinations for the most egregious crimes,” he said. The formal declaration from the U.S., he said, “underlines [the] staggering extent of the human suffering inflicted by Moscow on the Ukrainian civilian population.”
The determination is mostly symbolic and does not yield immediate repercussions for Russia, but it demonstrates the United States’ continued resolve against the aggressor in the conflict.
The United Nations defines a crime against humanity as an act, including murder, extermination, enslavement, and others, that is done as part of widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack.
Russia has rejected allegations that it has conducted criminal campaigns against civilians in Ukraine. The U.S. has supported Ukraine’ military defense since Russia invaded in February 2022. In total, Congress has authorized $113 billion in military and economic funding for the war-torn country. About $30 million in spending was also authorized to keep track of the war crimes Russia has been committing, the Wall Street Journal noted.