Russia condemns US allegations of crimes against humanity in Ukraine

Russia has denounced US allegations that Moscow is committing crimes against humanity in Ukraine.

Russia’s ambassador to the United States said on Sunday that Washington is trying to demonize Moscow and stir up the crisis in Ukraine with allegations of Russia committing crimes against humanity.

Vice President Kamala Harris said Saturday that the Biden administration has officially concluded that Russia committed “crimes against humanity” during its nearly year-long invasion of Ukraine.

“We consider such insinuations an unprecedented attempt to demonize Russia within the framework of the hybrid war being waged against us,” Ambassador Anatoly Antonov said in a statement on the Russian embassy’s Telegram messaging platform.

“There is no doubt that the purpose of such attacks by Washington is to justify its actions to fuel the Ukrainian crisis,” he added.

USAID-supported organizations have documented more than 30,000 war crime incidents since the invasion, according to the US government.

Ukrainian officials said they are investigating the bombing of the city of Bakhmut on Thursday as a possible war crime.

The UN-backed Commission of Inquiry into Ukraine says it has identified war crimes but has not decided whether they amount to crimes against humanity.

Friday marks the anniversary since Russia launched what it calls a “special military operation” to “disarm” and “disarm” its neighbor.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Kiev’s western allies have described the invasion, with no end in sight, as an unprovoked imperial grab of territory.

The war claimed tens of thousands of lives, displaced millions, destroyed the global economy, and made Russian President Vladimir Putin a pariah in the West.

The Kremlin has stepped up its operations across a large swath of southern and eastern Ukraine, and a new major offensive was widely expected.

The United States and its allies have provided Ukraine with increasingly advanced weaponry, including modern battle tanks, and Western leaders have discussed more aid at a series of meetings in Europe in recent days.