The United States Senate on Tuesday, 15 March, condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin as a war criminal for his actions in Ukraine, after a resolution for the same was passed unanimously.
The resolution was tabled by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and received bipartisan support.
It encouraged the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague and other nations to investigate the war crimes committed by the Putin regime during its assault on Ukraine.
Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, in a speech just before the vote, said that "all of us in this chamber joined together, with Democrats and Republicans, to say that Vladimir Putin cannot escape accountability for the atrocities committed against the Ukrainian people".
What is a War Crime?
According to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, a war crime is when, during a war, combatants and soldiers fail to ensure the safety of the civilian population, or if they include civilian populations in their attacks.
The law surrounding war crimes, according to war crime expert Michael Newton, rely on the foundational principle that combatants must "at all times distinguish between the civilian population and combatants – and between civilian objects and military objectives, and accordingly shall direct their operations only against military objectives", reported CNN.
A total of 41 states have asked the International Criminal Court to "open an investigation and commence evidence-collection", as per the statement of ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan.
Khan also stated that "if attacks are intentionally directed against the civilian population: that is a crime. If attacks are intentionally directed against civilian objects: that is a crime. ... There is no legal justification, there is no excuse, for attacks which are indiscriminate, or which are disproportionate in their effects on the civilian population."
It's been three weeks since the war on Ukraine began, after Vladimir Putin officially recognised the breakaway "people's republics" of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine. Following that recognition, he ordered the Russian military to enter these two "republics" to perform "peacekeeping duties."
(With inputs from Reuters and CNN.)
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