US says Russia commits war crimes in Ukraine, as Biden leaves for summit meetings in Europe

WASHINGTON DC, United States (Kurdistan24) – On Wednesday, the US formally stated that it believed that Russia was committing war crimes in Ukraine, as the fourth week of the conflict drew to an end. 

The US declaration came as President Joe Biden left for Brussels to attend a series of three meetings dealing with the Ukraine war. The meetings will begin with a NATO summit, in which the 30-member alliance will discuss military measures to strengthen NATO’s eastern flank and bolster Ukraine’s defenses, including against weapons of mass destruction.

The NATO meeting will be followed by a summit of the G7: the major liberal democracies—Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the US. They will discuss economic measures related to the Ukraine crisis, including additional sanctions. 

Finally, a European Union summit will follow, with Biden attending as a guest of the EU. 

As Biden left Washington, he was asked about the danger of Russia potentially using chemical weapons in Ukraine as its military campaign falters.

“How high is that threat?,” a reporter asked. “I think it’s a real threat,” Biden responded. That is a concern shared by other Western leaders.

US Charge of Russian War Crimes

Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued a statement on Wednesday, explaining that the State Department and other US agencies had been “documenting and assessing potential war crimes in Ukraine.”

“Today, I can announce that, based on information currently available, the US government assesses that members of Russia’s forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine,” Blinken said.

Later on Wednesday, Amb. Beth Van Schaak, Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice, addressed reporters. Her office has led the State Department’s efforts to investigate war crimes in Ukraine. 

She noted the “numerous credible reports of hospitals, schools, theaters” and other civilian sites being “intentionally attacked” by Russian forces. The civilian death toll “will be in the thousands,” she suggested.

Asked if those charged with war crimes could include Russian President Vladimir Putin, as he is the armed forces’ Commander-in-Chief, she noted, “There are doctrines under international law and domestic law” that “reach all the way up the chain of command.” She said that a final determination “would depend on a court that has jurisdiction,” however.

The Future: A Saddam-Like Stalemate?

Some people, like Francis Fukuyama, the author of the influential book celebrating the US victory over the Soviet Union, “The End of History,” have predicted that the war in Ukraine will prove so disastrous that Putin will be overthrown by elements within Russia.

However, if that does not happen, a prolonged stalemate may well follow between the US and Europe, on the one hand, and Russia, on the other. After Moscow’s brutal and unprovoked attack on Ukraine, it is difficult to see how the West will be able to return to normal dealings with Russia, particularly if senior figures, including Putin, are deemed guilty of war crimes.

Presumably, a major tool against Russia will be sanctions. In that respect, the stalemate would resemble the prolonged stand-off with Saddam Hussein that followed the 1991 Gulf War. 

President George H. W. Bush ended the Gulf war with Saddam in power, but he did not expect Saddam to survive. He expected that Saddam would be overthrown in a coup. That did not happen, of course, and for the next decade, the US relied on sanctions for its main form of pressure on Iraq. This state of affairs lasted until after the 9/11 attacks when President George W. Bush launched the second Gulf War.

The question of Saddam’s involvement in terrorism, including in 9/11, became highly controversial. If Saddam had been involved, it would have meant that the elder Bush and senior figures in his administration—including individuals like Brent Scowcroft and Colin Powell—had made a terrible blunder in ending the 1991 war as they did.

It would also have meant that Bush’s successor, Bill Clinton, a Democrat, had made a similar blunder. As president, Clinton did not want to deal with the challenges that Saddam posed. Clinton’s Middle East policy focused on the Arab-Israeli “peace process,” while his policy toward Iraq was minimalist. His policy focus was maintaining sanctions. Even after Saddam drove UN weapons inspectors out of Iraq in 1998, Clinton did little to secure their return.

Anyone familiar with the ways of Washington will understand that one of the most difficult challenges for an official is to recognize, acknowledge, and correct errors—particularly if a figure has the political clout to resist that exercise. 

Yet if a prolonged stalemate does follow the war in Ukraine, with the West relying primarily on economic measures to contain and pressure Russia, a proper understanding of how Saddam responded to a similar situation in the years following the 1991 Gulf War might become quite important.

Protecting Ukraine against WMD Attack

The US, and NATO more broadly, are concerned about Moscow’s repeated allusions to weapons of mass destruction—both to its own nuclear forces, and to allegations of Western chemical and biological weapons being manufactured in Ukraine.

Russia referencing its own nuclear forces may be seen as a subtle threat to use them if pressed hard enough. Similarly, Russia’s charges of Western biological and chemical weapons in Ukraine may create a pretext for Moscow to justify its own use of such weapons.

Just days after Russia’s assault on Ukraine began on Feb. 24, Putin announced he was placing his nuclear forces in “special combat readiness.” Repeated hints about possible Russian use of nuclear weapons followed. 

Most recently, on Wednesday, Dmitry Medvedev, a close Putin ally who was Russian president from 2008 to 2012 and is now a senior figure on Russia’s Security Council, charged that the US had long sought Russia’s destruction. If the US continued to work towards that goal, he said, it could result in a crisis that would end in a “big nuclear explosion.”

“Russia must stop its nuclear saber-rattling,” NATO Secretary-General, Jens Stoltenberg, warned on Wednesday. “Any use of nuclear weapons will fundamentally change the nature of the conflict,” he continued. “Russia must understand that a nuclear war should never be fought, and they can never win a nuclear war.”

Stoltenberg also echoed US warnings about the use of chemical or biological weapons. 

He cited Russia’s “false claims that Ukraine, supported by NATO allies, are producing and preparing for the use of chemical weapons.”

“It may be a way for them” to “try to create a pretext for their use of chemical weapons,” Stoltenberg said. He noted that Moscow had used chemical weapons against its political opponents before while backing the Syrian regime. The Syrian regime has “actually used chemical weapons” against its own people, he warned.

Moreover, Stoltenberg added a new dimension to concerns about Russia’s possible use of such weapons: contaminating Europe beyond Ukraine.

This issue “is extremely serious for the people of Ukraine,” Stoltenberg said, “but any use of chemical weapons or biological weapons may also have consequences for NATO-allied countries.” 

“The spread of chemical or biological agents used in Ukraine” could also “have dire consequences” for those people “living in NATO-allied countries in Europe,” he warned, affirming that this “underscores the seriousness of all our concerns.”

Thus, as Stoltenberg explained, in addition to providing Ukraine more support with cyber security, NATO will also provide Ukraine with equipment to help it protect itself against “chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats.”