MUNICH (AP) 鈥 The United States has determined that Russia has committed crimes against humanity in Ukraine, Vice President Kamala Harris said Saturday, insisting that 鈥渏ustice must be served鈥 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 .
鈥淩ussian forces have pursued a widespread and systemic attack against a civilian population 鈥 gruesome acts of murder, torture, rape, and deportation,鈥 Harris said. She also cited 鈥渆xecution-style killings, beatings, and electrocution.鈥
The Biden administration formally determined last March that Russian troops had in Ukraine and said it would work with others to prosecute offenders. A determination of crimes against humanity goes a step further, indicating that attacks against civilians are being carried out in a widespread and systematic manner.
鈥淩ussian authorities have forcibly deported hundreds of thousands of people, from Ukraine to Russia, including children,鈥 Harris said. 鈥淭hey have cruelly separated children from their families."
She also pointed to in the strategic port city of Mariupol where civilians had been sheltering, which killed hundreds, and to the images of civilians' bodies left on after the Russian pullback from the Kyiv area last spring.
Harris said that as a former prosecutor and former head of California's Department of Justice, she knows 鈥渢he importance of gathering facts and holding them up against the law.鈥
鈥淚n the case of Russia鈥檚 actions in Ukraine, we have examined the evidence, we know the legal standards, and there is no doubt,鈥 she said. 鈥淭hese are crimes against humanity.鈥
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who also was attending the Munich conference, said in a statement issued as Harris spoke that 鈥渨e reserve crimes against humanity determinations for the most egregious crimes.鈥
The new determination underlines the 鈥渟taggering extent鈥 of suffering inflicted on Ukrainian civilians and 鈥渁lso reflects the deep commitment of the United States to holding members of Russia鈥檚 forces and other Russian officials accountable for their atrocities,鈥 he said.
In an address to his country on Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv this week had gotten 鈥渟trong signals from our partners, specific agreements on the inevitability of holding Russia accountable for aggression, for terror against Ukraine and its people.鈥
鈥淓very Russian attack 鈥 on every corner of our state will have concrete legal consequences for the terrorist state,鈥 Zelenskyy said, citing attacks not just in the past year of war but dating back to 2014, when fighting with Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine first broke out.
The president did not refer specifically to Harris鈥 remarks or name any countries that had provided agreements on Russian accountability.
Russia's nearly , has dominated discussions at the Munich conference, an annual gathering of security and defense officials from around the world. Harris told the assembled participants: "Let us all agree 鈥 on behalf of all the victims, both known and unknown, justice must be served.鈥
鈥淪uch is our moral interest,鈥 she said. 鈥淲e also have a significant strategic interest.鈥
If Russian President Vladimir Putin succeeds in attacking international rules and norms, she said, 鈥渙ther authoritarian powers could seek to bend the world to their will, through coercion, disinformation and even brute force.鈥
Harris' audience Saturday didn't include any Russian officials. Conference organizers decided not to invite them this year.
While Western officials defended , China's top diplomat, Wang Yi, called for an end to the war through peace talks, saying Beijing was 鈥渄eeply worried about the expansion and long-term effect of this war."
China has refused to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine or to impose sanctions on Moscow like Western nations have done. Without naming any countries, Wang said 鈥渢here may be forces鈥 that don't want the war to stop anytime soon.
鈥淲hat they care about is not the life and death of the Ukrainian people, nor the increasing damage to Europe. They probably have bigger strategic goals than Ukraine,鈥 he said.
Asked on the sidelines of the event about the U.S. determination of crimes against humanity, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba replied that 鈥淩ussia waged a genocidal war because they do not recognize our identity and they do not think we deserve to exist as a sovereign nation."
鈥淓verything that stems from that is crimes against humanity, war crimes and various other atrocities committed by the Russian army in the territory of Ukraine,鈥 he said. "Let lawyers sort out specifically which act belongs where in terms of legal qualification.鈥
Zelenskyy had urged Western allies in a video address to the conference on Friday to for Ukraine.
Kuleba voiced confidence that Ukraine would eventually receive fighter jets from its partners, despite their current reluctance. He noted that they initially pushed back on providing other heavy weapons that were later delivered or promised.
In Munich on Friday, a Ukrainian deputy prime minister, Oleksandr Kubrakov, called for cluster munitions and phosphorous bombs, German media reported. Cluster munitions are banned by an international treaty.
Asked whether he supported calling for such weapons, Kuleba said Ukraine has evidence that Russia uses them.
鈥淲e are not party to the convention on the prohibition of cluster ammunition, so legally there are no obstacles for that,鈥 he said. 鈥淎nd if we receive one, we will be using it exclusively against military forces of the Russian Federation.鈥
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Geir Moulson contributed to this report from Berlin.
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