Bodies waiting to be identified by their families, are seen outside the morgue amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in Bucha, Kyiv region, Ukraine April 20,2022. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra
VILNIUS, April 21 (Reuters) - Lawmakers in Latvia and Estonia voted unanimously on Thursday to declare killings of civilians in areas of Ukraine occupied by Russian forces to be acts of genocide, according to statements posted on the two parliaments' bsites.
Russian troops that pulled out of Ukraine's north a few weeks after Moscow's Feb. 24 invasion left behind towns littered with bodies of civilians - evidence of what U.S. President Joe Biden said last week amounts to genocide. read more
The Kremlin said it categorically disagreed with that position and accused Washington of hypocrisy. Moscow has denied targeting civilians in the war, saying, without evidence, that the incidents in question were faked to tarnish its military.
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Under international law, genocide is an intent to destroy - in whole or in part - a national, ethnic, racial or religious group. The ultimate war crime has a strict legal definition and has rarely been proven in court since it was cemented in humanitarian law after the Nazi Holocaust. read more
In its statement, the Latvian parliament cited "evidence of mass brutal crimes committed by the army of the Russian Federation, including the murder, torture, sexual abuse and desecration of Ukrainian civilians, including women and children, in Bucha, Irpin, Mariup ol and elsewhere".
Estonia's parliament cited "murders, enforced disappearances, deportations, imprisonment, torture, rape, and desecration of corpses".
On Feb. 28, four days into the invasion, International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Karim Khan said he had opened a formal investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine. A month later he urged countries to back his investigation and on April 14 said he would keep trying to get Russia to engage with the inquiry. read more
An initial report by a mission of experts set up by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the continent's top security and rights watchdog, documents a "catalogue of inhumanity" by Russian troops in Ukraine, according to the U.S. ambassador to the OSCE.
This included, Ambassador Michael Carpenter said, evidence of "direct targeting of civilians, attacks on medical facilities, rape, executions, looting and forced deportation of civilians to Russia".
French President Emmanuel Macron said that using the word "genocide" would amount to verbal escalation that would complicate his efforts to bring peace to Ukraine.
Moscow says the aim of its "special military operation" in Ukraine is to disarm its neighbour, defeat nationalists and protect separatists in the southeast. Kyiv and its Western allies reject that as a false pretext for an illegal war of aggression. read more
Reporting by Andrius Sytas in Vilnius, editing by Mark Heinrich
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
A_Melee_Ensued on April 21st, 2022 at 19:55 UTC »
This is important because the three Baltic states of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania are NATO members, and they share an actual border with Russia. If Finland joins NATO as well, Putin will have a huge NATO presence right on his western border, and he desperately does not want that.
NABDOR_SNIPER on April 21st, 2022 at 15:41 UTC »
Committing***
burningastronaut on April 21st, 2022 at 14:53 UTC »
It doesn’t take a lot of effort to research how russia has been exhibiting the exact same pattern throughout the history.
But it’s 2022 — we have a nearly pixel-perfect cosmic technology that can deliver a crisp image of the most remote parts of the world in a matter of milliseconds.
There’s nowhere to run and hide your atrocities. World will never forgive you.