US condemns Russian military atrocities, vows to increase aid to Ukraine

Washington/28.04.22/Turan: The United States is considering the possibility of including Russia in the list of state sponsors of terrorism, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said on Wednesday, speaking in Congress, TURAN reports in Washington.

"There’s no doubt in my mind... that the Russians are terrorizing the Ukrainian people. The question is this—and again, this is something that the lawyers are looking at—to make sure that we actually meet the statutory requirements of that designation,” Blinken told lawmakers.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has already asked the Biden administration to designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism.

Speaking at a U.N. Security Council meeting focused on accountability in Ukraine Wednesday night, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice Beth Van Schaack said that Washington has "credible evidence" Russia executed Ukrainians who tried to surrender in the Donetsk region.

“We now have credible information that a Russian military unit operating in the vicinity of Donetsk executed Ukrainians who were attempting to surrender, rather than take them into custody,” she said.

“If true, this would be in violation of a core principle of the law of war: the prohibition against the summary execution of civilians and of combatants who are hors de combat by virtue of surrender, injury or other forms of incapacitation,” she added.

The executions are part of a mounting list of war crimes Russia has been accused of committing, with the others including the targeting of civilians, the kidnapping of children, torture and rape.

Washington on Wednesday also reacted to Russia's retaliatory steps the U.S. and its allies have been bracing for — cutting off gas exports to two European nations, a move that raised concerns about the possibility of the Kremlin widening the stoppage to other nations.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told reporters that Russia's war on Ukraine 'screams' that the world needs to stop importing oil and gas from Russia and instead move toward other forms of energy.

The Biden administration has long warned that Russia would weaponize its energy exports but sought to work in lockstep with European allies on their own timelines to reduce reliance on Russian gas and oil.

“The Europeans have genuinely ambitious plans to move away from this reliance on Russian energy,” Secretary Blinken told lawmakers.

President Biden is expected to deliver remarks today at 10:45 AM, Washington time, on "support for Ukrainians defending their country and their freedom against Russia’s brutal war," according to the White House.

Biden will also travel to Alabama next week to visit a Lockheed Martin facility producing Javelin anti-tank weapons systems that his administration is sending to Ukraine to help fend off the Russian invasion, the White House announced.

The U.S. has ramped up its military assistance to Ukraine in recent weeks, sending heavy weapons to Ukrainian forces as Russia shifted its attacks away from Kyiv and toward Ukraine’s east and south.

Biden announced another $800 million in security aid to Ukraine last week and said he would ask Congress for an additional supplemental assistance package this week.

The equipment being sent to Ukraine is "having an effect on the battlefield," Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby told reporters on Wednesday..

The equipment is making a difference on the battle lines in the Donbas region — the site of the major Russian effort in Ukraine.

Kirby, who just returned from a trip with Secretary Austin to Europe, said the fight in the Donbas is active and kinetic.

Ukrainian officials told Austin that the equipment — coming from 40 different countries — is allowing Ukrainian forces to hold their own against the Russian invasion.-25B-