All Eyes on Ukraine: Our Pledge of Russian Accountability by US Ambassador Yuri Kim
Eusebio R. Sheffield
4 min read
Ukraine is miles away, but as members of the United Nations Security Council, the United States and Albania have a special responsibility to deal with what is happening there. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked and unjust war against Ukraine has unleashed horrific violence and caused immense death and destruction. The world has witnessed the horrors of this war in images of Ukrainian towns like Bucha, Irpin and Hostomel, and in Ukrainian towns still held or besieged by Russian forces, like Mariupol. This violence took the form of attacks that injured and killed civilians and destroyed civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, schools, a theater where children were sheltering and a busy train station, resulting in national and collective trauma. for Ukrainians that will never really be erased. There are also credible reports of brutal interpersonal violence: individuals killed in the form of executions; bodies showing signs of torture; and sexual violence against women and children. The brutality of war – the violence inflicted on innocent people by Russian forces – is painfully familiar to the Albanian people.
These horrific events in Ukraine do not appear to be isolated incidents or cases of individual soldiers ignoring orders and “going rogue”. They involve reports of what appears to be a deliberate and disturbing campaign and a deeply disturbing pattern of torture, rape, murder and other atrocities. Those responsible for these atrocities – including those who ordered them – must be held to account.
Attacks like the April 28 missile strike on Kyiv demonstrate a blatant disregard for civilian lives. As of May 26, the United Nations has officially confirmed the deaths or injuries of more than 7,800 Ukrainian civilians, while stressing that the true toll is likely considerably higher. These figures do not include Mariupol, a city in which officials said more than 10,000 civilians were killed. Among the victims in Mariupol was a 91-year-old Holocaust survivor, who perished in a basement during the Kremlin siege. Having resisted the Nazis, she lost her life due to Russian aggression.
President Biden and Secretary Blinken have condemned the apparent war crimes that members of Russian forces have committed in Ukraine. The United States, Albania, the European Union, and our allies and partners are tracking and documenting atrocities in Ukraine so that we can share information with institutions working to hold those responsible accountable for their actions. Along with Albania, the United States is supporting a series of international investigations into the atrocities in Ukraine. This includes those conducted by the International Criminal Court, the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). We also support civil society and NGOs that document human rights violations.
On May 17, the US State Department launched a new Conflict Observatory to capture, analyze, and widely disseminate evidence of Russian war crimes and other atrocities in Ukraine. The program is intended to support possible lawsuits in Ukrainian national courts, third country courts, US courts and other competent courts. At the request of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, we are also supporting a team of international prosecutors and war crimes experts who provide advice and support to the efforts of the Ukrainian authorities to collect, preserve and analyze the same evidence of atrocities for prosecution. We have helped to establish fact-finding efforts through the United Nations Human Rights Council as well as the Moscow Mechanism of the OSCE. On April 13, the OSCE fact-finding mission released a meticulous and compelling account of Russia’s human rights violations and abuses and its violations of international humanitarian law. He cited evidence of direct targeting of civilians, attacks on medical facilities, rapes, executions, looting and forced deportations of civilians to Russia. Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman has reported that Russian forces repeatedly detained and raped dozens of Ukrainian girls and women – some of whom are pregnant as a result – while saying the intention was for these victims to back down in front of sexual relations in the future and therefore never bear Ukrainian children. .
There is a strong international consensus that the conduct of the Russian state is intolerable and that those responsible must not go unpunished for instigating such violence and for flagrantly violating the principles that underpin peace and international security. Together with our allies and partners, we will seek accountability for war crimes and other atrocities in Ukraine using all available tools, including criminal prosecution where appropriate. It is essential that the international community continue its coordinated efforts to document these abuses, analyze the evidence and ensure that it is preserved and cataloged.
Our simple message to Russia’s military and political leaders, as well as its service members who commit war crimes or other atrocities, is this: The world is watching, and you will be held accountable. We will continue to provide Ukraine with the weapons and equipment it needs to defend itself, and we will continue to provide humanitarian assistance to those affected by the Kremlin’s brutal and senseless war.
