The Biden administration has formally concluded that Russia committed crimes against humanity during its nearly year-long invasion of Ukraine, Kamala Harris has said.
“In the case of Russia’s actions in Ukraine we have examined the evidence, we know the legal standards, and there is no doubt: these are crimes against humanity,” the US vice-president and former prosecutor said in prepared remarks delivered in a speech at the Munich security conference on Saturday.
“And I say to all those who have perpetrated these crimes, and to their superiors who are complicit in those crimes – you will be held to account.”
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, who is also attending the conference, said members of Russia’s forces had “committed execution-style killings of Ukrainian men, women, and children; torture of civilians in detention through beatings, electrocution, and mock executions; rape; and, alongside other Russian officials, have deported hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian civilians to Russia, including children who have been forcibly separated from their families”.
“These acts are not random or spontaneous; they are part of the Kremlin’s widespread and systematic attack against Ukraine’s civilian population”, Blinken added.
The official determination, which came at the end of a legal and factual analysis led by the US state department, carries no immediate consequences for the war.
Washington hopes the determination could help further isolate the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and galvanise legal efforts to hold members of his government accountable through international courts and sanctions.
Harris’s speech came as senior western leaders met in Munich to assess Europe’s worst conflict since the second world war.
She said Russia was a “weakened” country after Joe Biden led a coalition to punish Putin for the invasion, but Russia is intensifying assaults in Ukraine’s east.
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