On Monday, the US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said that president Joe Biden would meet allies to ensure President Vladimir Putin and Russia pay the price for war crimes in Ukraine.
Sullivan said this when speaking to reporters at the White House. According to him, he had yet to see any evidence that Russian atrocities had grown to genocide level.
For him, the US is building a case for Russia’s war crimes in ICC (International Criminal Court) or another credible venue.
There was a discovery of a mass grave and humans shot near ranges in Bucha, a town Ukrainian troops reclaimed from Russian forces.
This discovery galvanized the US and Europe into imposing more sanctions against Putin and Russia.
Further, Sullivan expressed that Russia’s permanent membership in the UN Security Council means Russia would block the war crimes accountability.
When asked if the killings in Bucha and other areas in Ukraine could be on Russian troops acting alone or Putin’s orders, Sullivan responded that even before the Russian invasion, Washington had warned that Russia intended “as a matter of policy in this war to kill dissidents” and to “impose a reign of terror across occupied territories in Ukraine.”
“So, no, we do not believe this is a random accident. We believe this was part of the plan,” he added.
In the meantime, the US is looking for information from 4 sources to build a case of war crimes against Moscow.
The sources are:
- The US and allies’ information from intelligence services.
- The observations of Ukrainians themselves on the ground.
- International organizations’ observations like the United Nations.
- Global independent media interviews.
The ICC has already started an investigation.
The ICC has already started investigating if war crimes are happening in Ukraine. The Ukraine government has equally established a team to gather and search for evidence.
In March, US president Joe Biden called for Putin to be tried for war crimes. He stated, “this guy is brutal” and that Putin is “a war criminal.”
On his part, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson maintained the attacks are “yet more evidence” of war crimes.
Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, expressed that Russia had “destroyed apartment buildings, schools, hospitals, critical infrastructure, civilian vehicles, shopping centers, and ambulances,” actions that the US sees as war crimes.
Photo by Ａｌｉｎａ Ｒｕｂａｎｅ from Flickr