US officially accuses Russian forces of war crimes in Ukraine

Secretary of State says determination was made after assessing public and intelligence sources

The US government has officially accused Russian military forces of committing war crimes in Ukraine.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken said that Vladimir Putin has “unleashed unrelenting violence that has caused death and destruction across Ukraine”.

“Today, I can announce that, based on information currently available, the US government assesses that members of Russia’s forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine,” he added.

He said the assessment was based on “a careful review of available information from public and intelligence sources”.

“As with any alleged crime, a court of law with jurisdiction over the crime is ultimately responsible for determining criminal guilt in specific cases,” he added.

The official determination by the US is likely to further sour, and potentially sever, relations with Moscow. It follows comments from president Joe Biden last week in which he described Mr Putin as a “war criminal”. That prompted Russia to warn that relations between the two countries could break off entirely in response.

“Such statements from the American president, unworthy of a statesman of such high rank, put Russian-American relations on the verge of rupture,” the foreign ministry said in a statement on Monday.

Russian forces have been largely stalled in their advances into Ukraine since launching an invasion on 24 February. After making early territorial gains in the north, east and south, Ukrainian forces have been able to force a stalemate across most frontlines.

In response, Russia has increased its use of artillery and missile strikes, which have caused devastation in Ukrainian cities and killed scores of civilians. More than 953 civilians have been killed since the start of the war, including at least 78 children, according to the United Nations, which noted that the true toll was likely to be higher.

Mr Blinken said Russian forces had “destroyed apartment buildings, schools, hospitals, critical infrastructure, civilian vehicles, shopping centers, and ambulances, leaving thousands of innocent civilians killed or wounded.”

People examine the damage after shelling of a shopping center, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, March 21, 2022. Eight people were killed in the attack. (AP)

He accused Russia of attacking sites that were clearly identifiable as civilian buildings, such as a maternity hospital and a theatre in the city of Mariupol.

“Putin’s forces used these same tactics in Grozny, Chechnya, and Aleppo, Syria, where they intensified their bombardment of cities to break the will of the people. Their attempt to do so in Ukraine has again shocked the world and, as President Zelenskyy has soberly attested, ‘bathed the people of Ukraine in blood and tears,’” Mr Blinked added.

The finding matches the conclusions of human rights organisations that have been tracking the conflict in Ukraine.

Bonnie Docherty, senior researcher in the Arms Division at Human Rights Watch, submitted written testimony to Congress last week in which she said Russia had used cluster munitions and explosive weapons with wide area effects, which have had “devastating effects on civilians and civilian structures in Ukraine.”

“Given the well-documented pattern of direct and reverberating effects, the use of explosive weapons with wide area effects in populated areas heightens concerns that attacks are indiscriminate and disproportionate, and thus unlawful. Individuals carrying out such attacks with criminal intent are responsible for war crimes,” she wrote in the testimony.