The United States has seen “very credible reports” of intentional attacks on civilians, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday, adding that Washington was documenting these reports to support appropriate organizations in their investigations of possible war crimes.
“We have seen very credible reports of deliberate attacks on civilians that would be a war crime,” Blinken said. CNN ‘State of the Union’ show. “We have seen very credible reports about the use of certain weapons,” he said.
“What we’re doing right now is documenting all of this, putting it together, looking at it and making sure that as people and the appropriate organizations and institutions investigate that war crimes have happened Or are being done, so we can support them. We’re doing it,” Blinken said.
The US embassy in Ukraine said in a tweet on Friday that the attack on the nuclear plant was a war crime as Russian aggression forces seized Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in heavy fighting in southeastern Ukraine, prompting global alarm.
The State Department sent a message to all US embassies in Europe not to retweet the tweet calling the Kyiv embassy attack a war crime. CNNwho said he reviewed the message.
Blinken did not address the embassy’s tweet, and the State Department declined to comment on whether the tweet reflected the US government’s overall position on the issue.
Russia, which denies attacking civilian areas, calls the campaign launched on February 24 a “special military operation”, adding that it has no plans to annex Ukraine, which was once Soviet territory under Moscow. Was part of the union, but has now turned to the West in search of NATO and EU membership.
Like all United Nations states, Russia and Ukraine are subject to the 1949 Geneva Conventions – which established legal standards for humane treatment in war and outlawed intentional attacks on civilians.
Now in its eleventh day, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attack has uprooted more than 1.5 million people in what the United Nations says is the fastest growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War II.
Images of cluster bombs and artillery attacks on Ukrainian cities this week have prompted the world’s top war crimes prosecutor to launch an investigation with the support of dozens of countries opposing Russia’s invasion.
in an interview with CNN European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, on the ‘State of the Union’ show, said there was a need to investigate whether Russia was committing war crimes in Ukraine.
“I think this question needs a stronger and clearer investigation,” von der Leyen said.