The atrocities Russia has committed during their invasion of Ukraine that the world has now seen from images coming out of Bucha are not the “random act of a rogue unit,” but a “deliberate campaign to kill, to torture, to rape, to commit atrocities,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters before boarding a plane to Brussels on Tuesday morning.
Blinken is traveling to Brussels to meet with other NATO foreign ministers and G7 foreign ministers.
“As this Russian tide is receding from parts of Ukraine, the world is seeing the death and destruction left in its wake, and we’re seeing, in particular, the horror that’s been left behind in Bucha, something that is touching people literally around the world,” Blinken said.
The images coming from Bucha of mass graves and bodies piled in body bags “reinforces our determination and the determination of countries around the world to make sure one way or another, one day or another, there is accountability for those who committed these acts.”
Blinken said the US is working with other countries to “put the evidence together” to support both Ukraine’s and the UN Human Rights Council’s investigations into whether or not Russia has committed war crimes.
“Horrifically, tragically, what we’re seeing in Bucha and in other places supports that, but in all of these instances, there’s a very important effort to put the evidence together, to compile it, document it, to support the different investigations that are going on. That’s what we’re doing, that’s what others are doing,” Blinken said.