The U.S. Embassy in Ukraine announced on Friday that the Russian attack on a nuclear plant is a war crime, following Russia’s seizure of a Ukrainian nuclear facility, the largest in Europe.
The announcement on the embassy’s Twitter account went further than any US characterization of Russia’s actions in Ukraine since the invasion began on February 24.
“It is a war crime to attack a nuclear plant. Putin’s bombing of Europe’s largest nuclear plant takes the realm of terror a step further,” said a statement from the US embassy in Kyiv.
Russian invading forces seized Europe’s largest nuclear plant in fierce fighting in southeastern Ukraine on Friday, prompting an international alert, but a huge fire in a training building was extinguished and officials said the facility was now safe.
Russia’s Defense Ministry attributed the fire to the factory in a “monstrous attack” by Ukrainian saboteurs and said its forces were in control.
On Wednesday, US President Joe Biden declined to describe Russia’s actions as war crimes, saying “it’s too early to say.”
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby on Friday declined to comment, saying he would leave the decision to the International Criminal Court.
“It just underscores how reckless the Russian invasion was. It just raises the level of potential disaster to a level that no one wants to see,” Kirby told CNN. “It certainly is not the behavior of a responsible nuclear power,” he said.
Source: Capital
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