Check possible war crimes
Harris condemns Russian ‘atrocities’
3/10/2022, 3:48 p.m
US Vice President Harris and Poland’s President Duda have accused Russia of carrying out war crimes in Ukraine. They are calling for international investigations, such as the attack on a maternity clinic in Mariupol. According to Harris, Russia has been weakened by the war, while NATO has been strengthened.
According to US Vice President Kamala Harris, NATO has moved closer together in view of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. “NATO is stronger and Russia is weaker because of what (Russian President Vladimir, ed.) Putin did,” Harris said during a visit to the Polish capital of Warsaw alongside President Andrzej Duda. “That’s very clear to all of us.”
Harris expressed his horror at the Russian shelling of a maternity hospital in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol on Wednesday. She complained that in the past few weeks, and even more so in the past 24 hours, “atrocities of unimaginable proportions” had been observed. The US Vice President called for an international investigation into possible war crimes. “In any case, there should be an investigation,” she replied when asked. The United Nations had already started a process to do this and the US would of course participate wherever appropriate and necessary.
Poland is asking the US to take in refugees
For his part, President Duda condemned the “barbaric” actions of the Russian forces in Ukraine. The Russian war of aggression has “characteristics of a genocide”. “If you bomb hospitals where there are pregnant women and children (…) if you throw bombs and rockets into residential areas where there is no military infrastructure, then that is barbarism that bears the traits of genocide,” so Duda. The Polish President said a group of investigators from the war crimes tribunal in The Hague had already arrived in Poland. There are many witnesses with evidence, including video recordings, among the Ukrainian refugees in his country.
Duda also appealed to the US government to take in refugees from the country for the duration of the war in Ukraine. There are many Ukrainian refugees with relatives in the US, said Duda. These people would like to visit their relatives in the United States and “wait out the war and then return home,” Duda continued. He asked Harris that the USA simplify the consular procedures in such cases in order to enable the refugees to be reunited with their families. According to border guards, more than 1.4 million refugees from Ukraine have arrived in Poland since the beginning of the war.
Irritations about MiG delivery to Ukraine
In addition to Duda, Harris met Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki in Warsaw on Thursday. With the visit, US President Joe Biden’s deputy wanted to assure Poland of US support in view of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine and fears of an escalation of the conflict.
Recently, however, there had been differences of opinion between the USA and Poland. Washington rejected a proposal by Warsaw to supply Polish MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine through the US Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany. The US Department of Defense said on Wednesday that such a move would be too risky because it could be viewed by Russia as an escalation. In addition, further deliveries of anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine make more sense.
Shortly before Harris and Duda’s meeting, it became known that the US had moved two “Patriot” missile systems from Germany to Poland. The “Patriot” missile batteries were positioned in Poland, a senior US defense official said on Wednesday. “We will not discuss where they are based, nor will we discuss their operational status.” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby stressed that the move was not triggered by any specific event or action by the Russians. But given the war in Ukraine – Poland’s neighbor – the “patriots” are best suited to defend NATO territory.