Washington: Russia has committed war crimes in Ukraine

In a moment in where Moscow accuses Ukrainian forces of committing a war crime against recently captured Russian soldiers, the US State Department has made similar allegations against Russia.

The US State Department said in a briefing today, Monday, that Russia carried out mass executions in Ukraine, according to Al-Arabiya/Al-Hadath reporter.

It also affirmed support for investigations into incidents of attacks on civilians and their deportation in Ukraine, in referring to previous allegations of forced deportation of civilians by Kiev in conflict zones.

Zelensky accuses

On Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of committing “hundreds of war crimes” in the southern Kherson region.

While he said that “investigators have documented more than 400 Russian war crimes and found the bodies of civilians and soldiers”, according to the local news agency “Ukrainform”.

On the other hand, Russia announced last week that Ukrainian soldiers had executed more than 10 Russian POWs, accusing the West of ignoring this crime.

Kiev in it later responded to this allegation, indicating it would investigate these “alleged violations.”

“Personal defence”

As for the head of human rights in the Ukrainian parliament, yesterday, Sunday, he denied the allegations explaining that “the incident that was filmed shows Ukrainian soldiers defending themselves against the Russians who pretended to surrender”, as he said.

Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said “excerpts from the video” which Moscow has called evidence of the soldiers’ execution showed in reality that the Russians “resorted to a feigned surrender … and committed a war crime by opening fire on Ukrainian forces”.

A series of videos, which appeared on social media last week, sparked a debate over whether Ukrainian forces committed war crimes or were acting in self-defense in trying to capture a group of Russian soldiers who were later killed.