US envoy to UN accuses Russia of war crimes, but State Department undecided

US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said on Thursday that Russia’s actions against Ukrainians are “war crimes“, BBC reported. 

The envoy appeared in a BBC Newshour interview, saying “They constitute war crimes; they are attacks on civilians that cannot be justified by any – in any way whatsoever”. Thomas-Greenfield noted that the US faced the question every day of whether Russia was guilty of war crimes and they are “working with others in the international community to document the crimes that Russia is committing against the Ukrainian people”. 

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While the ambassador to the UN couldn’t be sure the war crimes would be prosecuted, she said “what is important is that we collect the evidence and have the evidence ready and available to be used”. 

Though the US is not a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC), it is supportive of their probe into whether Russia committed war crimes in Ukraine. The envoy said, “We’ve always been supportive of the Criminal Court taking actions when actions are required”. 

Meanwhile, Ned Price, the State Department spokesperson stopped short of calling Russia’s actions in Ukraine a war crime, in his briefing Thursday, CNN reported. Price said, “The fact is that we’ve seen very credible reports of deliberate attacks on civilians, which would, under the Geneva Conventions, constitute a war crime”, and continued, “We are appalled by the brutal tactics that the Russian Federation, the Kremlin, has employed in prosecuting this war of choice”. 

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The spokesperson noted that targets of Russian attacks included cars, ambulances, schools, buses, and also mentioned the recent attack on the Mariupol maternity hospital. Price reiterated, “supportive of efforts to document and to investigate reports of potential war crimes in Ukraine”. 

Both Secretary of the State Antony Blinken and US Vice President Kamala Harris have shied away from labelling Russian actions as a war crime. President Joe Biden, too, recognized Russia is attacking civilians but have not yet termed their actions a war crime.