Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield
U.S. Representative to the United Nations
New York, New York
March 25, 2022
AS DELIVERED
Good morning, everyone. Thank you all for being here with us today and particularly welcome the ministers who are here with us in the room.
The United States is proud to join the Group of Friends on Accountability Following the Aggression Against Ukraine, and we’re proud to stand with Ukraine. As you heard on Wednesday, Secretary Blinken announced that based on currently available information, the U.S. government assesses that members of Russia’s forces have committed war crimes. This is the latest in our effort to document and pursue accountability for war crimes or other atrocities in Ukraine.
We’re committed to using every tool in our arsenal, including criminal prosecution, to hold Russia’s forces accountable. We’re pursuing this domestically, by supporting the work of the War Crimes Unit under the Office of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General, and also supporting Ukraine’s authorities and civil society organizations who are working on the ground to document atrocity crimes for prosecution.
And we are supporting international investigative and accountability-related mechanisms, too, including a robust new UN Commission of Inquiry to investigate possible human rights violations and abuses and violations of international humanitarian law by Russian forces. We also welcome the ICC Prosecutor’s announcement to open an investigation into this situation and, in particular, his focus on preserving evidence of alleged atrocity crimes and his commitment to full respect for the principles of complementarity.
All of this is incredibly important work. And we are honored to be doing it alongside all of you to demand accountability now and in the future for war crimes and atrocities happening in Ukraine.
Thank you very much.
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