The United States has formally established that Russia has committed “crimes against humanity” during its invasion of Ukraine that it launched nearly a year ago, following a factual and legal examination led by its State Department, US Vice President Kamala Harris said Saturday. , on the second day of the Munich Security Conference (MSC).
This informal forum for debates on defense and security, which is held every February in the Bavarian capital, brings together in this 59th edition more than 40 heads of state and government and defense and foreign ministers from one hundred countries, together with to industry experts. It started on Friday and ends this Sunday.
“In the case of Russia’s actions in Ukraine, we have examined the evidence, we know the legal standards and there is no question: These are crimes against humanity,” said Harris, who was a prosecutor before entering federal politics in his country. . “And I say to all those who have perpetrated these crimes, and to their superiors who are complicit in these crimes, they will be held accountable,” said the vice president, arguing that justice will persecute them. “On behalf of the victims, known and unknown, justice must be served, this is our moral interest,” Harris declared.
Kamala Harris listed as “barbaric and inhumane” acts against the Ukrainian civilian population: the dozens of victims in Bucha shortly after the invasion began on February 24, 2022; the March 9 bomb attack on a maternity hospital in Mariupol; or the rape of a four-year-old girl by a Russian soldier, documented in a UN report. Harris spoke of “horrendous acts of murder, torture, rape and deportation.”
In the strategic field, Kamala Harris congratulated herself because “Russia is increasingly weakened and the Atlantic Alliance is increasingly stronger”, although she regretted that Iran provides drones to the Russian army and that China is compromising with Vladimir Putin, something that The United States “views with concern.”
The Munich event was attended by, among others: the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz; French President Emmanuel Macron; NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg; Heads of Government of the Nordic and Baltic countries; and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. The Spanish Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, participates in a colloquium this Saturday. This edition of the MSC is not attended by a Russian delegation, as already happened in 2022 for the first time in twenty years. In 2022 Russia was invited, this year no longer.
This edition of the MSC is deeply marked by the imminent anniversary of the Russian invasion, but the attending leaders also address other global security issues, such as the Iranian regime, the tension between the United States and China over Chinese observation balloons, or the conflicts in the Middle East.