By Lidia Kelly
Feb 19 (Reuters) – 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 on Sunday.
The Biden administration formally concluded that Russia has committed “crimes against humanity” during its nearly year-long invasion of Ukraine, Vice President Kamala Harris said on Saturday.
“We regard such insinuations as an unprecedented attempt to demonize Russia in the framework of the hybrid war unleashed against us,” Ambassador Anatoly Antonov said in a statement on the Russian Embassy’s Telegram messaging platform.
“There is no doubt that the purpose of such attacks by Washington is to justify its own actions to fuel the Ukrainian crisis.”
Organisations supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development have documented more than 30,000 war crimes incidents since the invasion, according to the U.S. government. Ukrainian officials said they were investigating the Thursday shelling of the city of Bakhmut as a possible war crime.
The U.N.-backed Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine says it has identified war crimes but has not concluded whether they amount to crimes against humanity.
Friday will mark a year since Russia launched what it calls “a special military operation” to “denazify” and “demilitarise” its neighbour. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Kyiv’s Western allies call the invasion, which has no end in sight, an unprovoked, imperialistic land grab.
The war has killed tens of thousands, uprooted millions, pummelled the global economy and made Russian President Vladimir Putin a pariah in the West.
The Kremlin has intensified operations across a broad swath of southern and eastern Ukraine, and a major new offensive has been widely anticipated.
The United States and its allies have provide Ukraine with increasingly sophisticated arms, including modern battle tanks, and Western leaders have discussed more aid at a series of meetings in Europe in recent days.
In Other Developments:
DIPLOMACY
* U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned China’s top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi at a Munich conference of consequences should China provide material support to Russia’s invasion, while Harris said Chinese support would reward aggression.
* Wang said China has “neither stood by idly nor thrown fuel on the fire” regarding the crisis in Ukraine, and continues to call for peace and dialogue.
* France wants Russia defeated in Ukraine but does not want to “crush Russia” on its own soil, said President Emmanuel Macron.
* The European Union is urgently exploring ways for member countries to team up to buy munitions for Ukraine. European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said the EU “can move mountains” to supply more ammunition.
* Britain offered to help countries willing to send aircraft to Ukraine now, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said, urging allies to maintain their support.
* Poland is ready to support Ukraine with MiG jets, but only if a U.S.-led coalition is formed, said Prime Minister Morawiecki.
* The Netherlands said it would close its consulate in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and limit the number of Russian diplomats allowed at their embassy in The Hague, over efforts “to secretly get intelligence agents into the Netherlands”. Moscow said it would respond.
* The U.S. government has spoken with Elon Musk about the use of Starlink satellite internet in Ukraine, Blinken said after Musk’s SpaceX said it had taken steps to prevent Ukraine’s military from using the service for controlling drones.
FIGHTING
* Most of Ukraine has power despite a series of major Russian attacks on the generating system, said President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
* Blasts wounded two civilians and shattered several hundred windows in the west Ukrainian city of Khmelnytskyi as Russia fired missiles from the Black Sea, Ukrainian officials said. Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched four Kalibr missiles, two of which were shot down by air defences.
* Russia’s defence ministry said a push by its forces had captured of Hrianykivka, a village in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region 180 km (110 miles) north of Bakhmut, the scene of recent fierce fighting.
