U.S. Seeks To Inflame Crisis With 'Crimes Against Humanity' Claim, Says Russian Envoy

Washington is trying to demonize Moscow and foment the crisis in Ukraine with allegations of Russian crimes against humanity, Russia's ambassador to the United States said after the Biden administration formally concluded that Russia has committed "crimes against humanity" during its invasion on Ukraine.

According to a report by Reuters, Ambassador Anatoly Antonov said in a statement that, "We regard such insinuations as an unprecedented attempt to demonize Russia in the framework of the hybrid war unleashed against us."

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris referred to the gruesome acts of murder, torture, rape and deportation during Russia's year-long invasion on Ukraine and termed them as "barbaric and inhumane".

"In the case of Russia's actions in Ukraine we have examined the evidence, we know the legal standards, and there is no doubt: these are crimes against humanity," Harris said while delivering a speech at the Munich Security Conference, according to a report by Reuters. She added, "And I say to all those who have perpetrated these crimes, and to their superiors who are complicit in those crimes, you will be held to account."

In response, the Russian ambassador said that the purpose of such an "attack" by Washington is to "justify its own actions to fuel the Ukrainian crisis". February 24 will mark a year since Russia launched the invasion on Ukraine which has caused widespread suffering.

Meanwhile, at a United Nations Security Council meeting, Kremlin’s U.N. ambassador claimed that the West is driven by its determination to destroy Russia and declared that, “We had no choice other than to defend our country — defend it from you, to defend our identity and our future.” 

Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia also accused Western nations including France and Germany of “holding back” on implementing the Minsk agreements brokered by the two countries to end the conflict between Ukraine and the separatists in Luhansk and Donetsk in the country’s mostly Russian-speaking industrial east that flared in April 2014 after Russia’s annexation of Crimea. In response, U.S. Ambassador Richard Mills claimed that Russia failed to implement "a single committment it made" in the aforementioned Minsk agreements. 

France’s De Riviere said that on February 17, 2022, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin reaffirmed to the council that the Minsk agreements were “the only international legal basis” to resolve the conflict in Ukraine and just a few days later, Russia invaded Ukraine. "The one and only lesson to be learned here is that Russia, by attacking Ukraine, has chosen alone, to put an end to dialogue and negotiation,” De Riviere said.

(With inputs from AP)