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United States Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday levelled allegations against Moscow as she said that Russia committed “crimes against humanity” in Ukraine during the ongoing invasion. This is the first time that the US has designated Russia’s actions as such.
While addressing the Munich Security Conference (MSC) in Germany, Harris accused Russian troops of “gruesome acts of murder, torture, rape and deportation, execution-style killings, beatings and electrocution”.
With these blames, the Biden administration has formally concluded that Russia has committed “crimes against humanity” during the war, which began almost one year ago.
She said, “The US has formally determined that Russia has committed crimes against humanity. Their actions are an assault on our common values and our common humanity. Russian forces have pursued a widespread and systemic attack against a civilian population.”
Harris further said that “justice must be served” and those who have “perpetrated” these crimes will be held to account.
She also warned that the alleged Chinese support for Russia in its war in Ukraine. She said it would cause further aggression.
Meanwhile, at the same conference, China’s top diplomat Wang Yi said that Beijing has “neither stood by idly nor thrown fuel on the fire” regarding the crisis in Ukraine.
WATCH | China’s top diplomat calls for dialogue over Ukraine crisis
Wang, who is the director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, said Beijing continues to call for peace and dialogue.
Wang also called out the US for the recent spy balloon saga, which escalated tensions between the two countries.
US scrambled fighter jets to shoot down a Chinese balloon after it was spotted in the US airspace earlier this month. Beijing previously said that the “civilian airship” was used for research and must have drifted away and entered the US airspace.
While addressing the security conference, Wang said, “There are so many balloons all over the world, so is the United States going to shoot all of them down?”
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