US says Russia is committing crimes against humanity

THE US has accused Russian forces of crimes against humanity, including murder, rape and the forced deportation of children.

The official determination, which follows a legal analysis led by the US state department, carries with it no immediate consequences for the ongoing war but is a step up from the previous allegation of war crimes.

Kamala Harris, the US vice-president, said that Russia had “cruelly” targeted the civilian population of Ukraine.

“Russian forces have pursued a widespread and systemic attack against a civilian population, gruesome acts of murder, torture, rape, and deportation,” she told a conference in Munich.

There has been widespread publicity around Russian soldiers committing atrocities, with rape, torture and murder used to spread fear. Ms Harris also described how the Kremlin was abducting children. “Russian authorities have deported hundreds of thousands of people, from Ukraine to Russia.”

Her comments came after a 34-page report from Yale University detailed how the Kremlin was brainwashing thousands of abducted Ukrainian children in a camp network stretching from the Black Sea to Russia’s Pacific coast.

It said that 6,000 children have been deported from occupied Ukraine for “re-education” in a programme.

This network of 43 camps is an effort to “make children more pro-Russia,” the US university said. The report said that many are falsely labelled as “orphans’’ and adopted by Russian foster parents.

The real parents are often tricked into sending them to “holiday camps”. Their sons and daughters are not returned. The children are told that they have been abandoned.