US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday that there were ‘very credible reports’ of civilians being targetted in ongoing conflict in Russia. He added that the US was documenting these reports
“We’ve seen very credible reports of deliberate attacks on civilians which would constitute a war crime,” Blinken told CNN’s “State of the Union” show. “We’ve seen very credible reports about the use of certain weapons,” he said.
“What we’re doing right now is documenting all of this, putting this all together, looking at it and making sure that as people and the appropriate organizations and institutions investigate whether war crimes have been or are being committed that we can support whatever they are doing,” Blinken added.
Russia has denied allegations of attacking civilian areas and has termed Ukraine conflict “special military operation”. Russia launched a full scale attack on Ukraine on February 24.
The US embassy in Ukraine on Friday sent a tweet that attacking a nuclear plant is a war crime after Russian invasion forces seized Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant in heavy fighting in southeastern Ukraine, triggering global alarm.
The State Department sent a message to all U.S. embassies in Europe telling them not to retweet the Kyiv embassy’s tweet calling the attack a war crime, according to CNN, which said it reviewed the message.
(With inputs from agencies)
