'Targetting civilians is a war crime': Antony Blinken believes Russia guilty of committing war crimes

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday (March 17) said that Russia is not making enough efforts in peace talks with Ukraine to end the conflict.

Blinken also said that he believes Moscow is guilty of committing war crimes as recent attacks in Ukrainian cities targetted civilians.

Blinken told reporters at the State Department, "Yesterday, President Biden said that in his opinion, war crimes have been committed in Ukraine."

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"Personally, I agree. Intentionally targetting civilians is a war crime. After all the destruction of the past few weeks, I find it difficult to conclude that the Russians are doing otherwise," he said.

Blinken further said that the United States President Joe Biden was preparing to issue a warning to China not to send arms to Russia in support of its invasion of Ukraine.

As per United Nations, the concept of war crimes developed particularly at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. During that time, the international humanitarian law, which is also known as the law of armed conflict, was codified.

The Hague Conventions was adopted in 1899 and 1907 focus on the prohibition to warring parties to use certain means and methods of warfare.

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Blinken gave reference to the recent bombing of a theatre in Mariupol in southern Ukraine where many people had taken refuge, including children to save themselves from shellings. He also cited allegations that Russians opened fire on 10 civilians in line to buy bread in Chernihiv.

"With every day that passes the number of civilians, including children, killed and wounded, continues to climb. Russia continues to attack civilian sites, including this week alone, a hospital, three schools (and) a boarding school for visually impaired kids in the Luhansk region of Ukraine," he said.

He said US experts were now documenting and evaluating reports of attacks on civilians to determine if formal war crimes cases can be made.

"We need to go through this process of compiling the evidence, collecting the evidence, understanding the evidence. We'll share that, and our allies and partners I'm sure will do the same, with all of the investigations that are ongoing, to support accountability using every tool that we have available," he said.

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