Evidence Mounting Of Systemic War Crimes By Russian Troops In Ukraine, U.S. Says

A top State Department official on Monday said that there is “mounting evidence” of “systemic war crimes" being committed in "every region where Russia's forces have been deployed” in Ukraine, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

"This includes deliberate, indiscriminate, and disproportionate attacks against the civilian population and elements of the civilian infrastructure," U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice Beth Van Schaack told reporters on a call.

"We’re seeing custodial abuses of civilians and POWs and also efforts to cover up these crimes. We have reports of citizens being killed execution-style, with their hands bound. We have bodies that show signs of torture.  We have horrific accounts of gender-based violence, including sexual violence against women and children," she said,

Ukraine’s Office of the Prosecutor General has already identified thousands of incidents that may constitute war crimes.  And all of this is without yet knowing what is unfolding in areas that are still under Russia’s occupation or control. "And so we expect that additional evidence will continue to mount as these areas are liberated," Van Schaack said.

The diplomat also highlighted Russia’s construction of a vast transnational infrastructure of filtration operations, to which thousands of Ukrainian citizens have now been subjected, she said.

"There are compelling reports describing physical and psychological abuse, including summary executions, as part of these operations, and the forcible transfer and deportation, including thousands of Ukrainian children, who have been abducted and forcibly adopted by families within Russia" she said.

Washington is supporting the International Criminal Court, the Ukrainian Office of the Prosecutor General, the UN Commission of Inquiry, a European joint investigative team, Van Schaack emphasized.

Alex Raufoglu

Washington D.C.