United States in OSCE: Execution of Ukrainian prisoner is a war crime
US will step up efforts to bring Russian war criminals to justice.
This was stated by U.S. Permanent Representative to the OSCE Michael Carpenter during a meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council, informs Censor.NЕТ referring to Ukrinform.
"At a time when Ukraine continues to defend itself against aggression, it is important to remember what Russia's occupation of part of Ukraine's territory means for the Ukrainian people. Filtration operations. Summary executions and torture. Rape and other forms of gender-based sexual violence," Carpenter said.
He stated that women, children, the elderly, and people with disabilities suffer the most from these crimes.
At the same time, the American diplomat commented on the execution of a Ukrainian prisoner of war: "This week we saw on video how Russian soldiers killed an unarmed Ukrainian prisoner of war after he said 'Glory to Ukraine'. This is a war crime."
Carpenter also recalled the story of 16-year-old Dasha from Kherson, who was raped by Russian soldiers when she came out of a shelter to find food.
In addition, the U.S. representative to the OSCE told the story of Oksana Minenko from Kherson, the widow of a Ukrainian soldier who was repeatedly tortured by the occupiers. The invaders forced the woman to kneel by her husband's grave and imitated an execution, dipped her hands in boiling water, tore out her nails, hit her in the face, and strangled her.
The diplomat expressed confidence that the memorandum of understanding signed last week between the United States and Ukraine, Lithuania, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Slovakia, and Romania "will strengthen our efforts to bring Russian war criminals to justice wherever they are."
"This effort builds on decades of cooperation between the United States and Ukraine in investigating and documenting World War II crimes committed in Nazi-occupied Ukraine. In fact, the same U.S. attorney who led the U.S. Department of Justice's efforts to investigate these Nazi crimes will now lead the effort to investigate Russia's crimes in Ukraine," Carpenter said.
He also reminded that Congress has passed a law that will allow all Russian war criminals who are in the United States to be brought to justice.
As a reminder, on March 6, a video was posted online showing Russians shooting a Ukrainian prisoner of war after he said "Glory to Ukraine!"
