US says Russia has committed crimes against humanity in Ukraine

The United States has determined that Russia has committed crimes against humanity in Ukraine, Vice President Kamala Harris said Saturday, insisting that “justice must be served” to the perpetrators.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Harris said the international community has both a moral and a strategic interest in pursuing those crimes, pointing to a danger of other authoritarian governments taking advantage if international rules are undermined.

“Russian forces have pursued a widespread and systemic attack against a civilian population — gruesome acts of murder, torture, rape, and deportation,” Harris said. She also cited “execution-style killings, beatings, and electrocution.”

Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov has slammed accusations by Washington that Russia had committed “crimes against humanity” as an attempt to vilify Moscow and escalate the conflict in Ukraine.

“We consider such insinuations as an attempt, unprecedented in terms of its cynicism, to demonize Russia in the course of a hybrid war, unleashed against us,” Antonov said in response to questions from reporters on Sunday.

He added that these claims were being used to “justify Washington’s own actions to fuel the Ukrainian crisis” and keep militarizing Kiev.

The diplomat also accused the US of turning a “blind eye” to Kiev’s actions in the conflict and “completely ignoring” years of shelling settlements in Donbass.