Blinken: Putin Must Not Be Allowed to Flout International Humanitarian Law
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken appears on a screen as he delivers a speech during the 49th session of the U.N. Human Rights Council at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, March 1, 2022.
Geneva —
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warns that rules of the international order that help protect peace and security will be weakened if Russian President Vladimir Putin is allowed to get away with his premeditated invasion of Ukraine.
In a video address to the U.N. Human Rights Council, Blinken warned the human rights and humanitarian crises affecting Ukraine will get worse if Putin succeeds in toppling the country’s democratically elected government.
"Look at Crimea, where Russia’s occupation has come with extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture, arbitrary detention, the persecution of ethnic and religious minorities, the brutal repression of dissent. … Reports of Russia’s human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law are mounting by the hour,” Blinken said.
In Photos: Russia's Invasion of Ukraine, March 1, 2022
1/19This handout picture released on the Facebook page of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, March 1, 2022 show the smoke after a missile attack targeting the Ukrainian capital's television center in Kyiv. (Ukrainian Interior Ministry Press Service/AFP)
2/19A blast is seen in the TV tower, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in Kyiv, March 1, 2022.
3/19A member of the Ukrainian Emergency Service looks at the City Hall building in the central square following shelling in Kharkiv, March 1, 2022. Russian strikes pounded the central square in Ukraine’s second-largest city and other civilian sites in what the country’s president condemned as blatant campaign of terror by Moscow.
4/19Ukrainian emergency service personnel carry a body of a victim out of the damaged City Hall building following shelling in Kharkiv, March 1, 2022.
5/19People wait to board an evacuation train from Kyiv to Lviv at Kyiv central train station following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in Kyiv, March 1, 2022.
6/19A woman takes photos of a destroyed building near a checkpoint in Brovary, outside Kyiv, March 1, 2022.
7/19The body of a victim lies next to damaged cars in the central square following shelling of the City Hall building in Kharkiv, March 1, 2022.
8/19A Ukrainian law enforcement officer holds a weapon while approaching a vehicle in a street in Kharkiv, March 1, 2022.
9/19A view shows a courtyard of the regional administration building, which city officials said was hit by a missile attack in central Kharkiv, Ukraine, March 1, 2022.
10/19A truck loaded with anti-tanks barriers is parked at Independence Square in Kyiv, March 1, 2022.
11/19A man leaves a vehicle damaged by shelling in Brovary, outside Kyiv, March 1, 2022.
12/19Members of an Ukrainian civil defense unit pass new assault rifles to the opposite side of a blown up bridge on Kyiv's northern front, March 1, 2022.
13/19Soldiers walk near a car that was destroyed by recent shelling on a check-point in the city of Brovary outside Kyiv, March 1, 2022.
14/19Volunteers make camouflage nets for the Ukrainian military at a library in western city of Lviv, March 1, 2022.
15/19This shows a view of Khreshchatyk, one of the main streets in Kyiv, empty due to curfew, Ukraine, March 1, 2022.
16/19European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen applauds after an address by Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, via video link, during an extraordinary session on Ukraine at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, March 1, 2022.
17/19Refugees from Ukraine rest after arriving to the border crossing Vysne Nemecke, Slovakia, March 1, 2022.
18/19Hundreds of beds are placed inside a sports hall to accommodate Ukrainian refugees fleeing Russian invasion at the border crossing town of Medyka, Poland, March 1, 2022.
19/19Refugees from Ukraine rest at the railway station in Przemysl, Poland, March 1, 2022.
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Since Russia invaded Ukraine six days ago, Blinken notes Russian strikes against civilians and civilian infrastructures have escalated. He says schools, hospitals and residential buildings have been targeted. He says critical infrastructure providing millions of people with drinking water, with gas to prevent them from freezing, with electricity to keep the lights on has been destroyed.
“The High Commissioner said yesterday that Russia’s attacks had killed at least a hundred civilians, including children, and wounded hundreds more — and said she expects the real figures are much higher. … Russia’s violence has driven over half a million Ukrainians from the country in just a few days," Blinken said. "Children, the elderly, people with disabilities, who are making harrowing journeys through conflict zones.”
The Kremlin insisted Tuesday that Russian troops don’t conduct any strikes against civilian infrastructure and residential areas.
The U.N. Refugee Agency is preparing for up to 4 million Ukrainians to flee for safety to neighboring countries. UNHCR officials say the situation looks set to become Europe’s largest refugee crisis this century.
Blinken says Russia’s repression does not stop at Ukraine’s borders. He says the Kremlin also is ramping up its repression within Russia. He says human rights defenders, journalists, Putin’s political opponents have long been subjected to harassment, intimidation, poisoning and imprisonment.
He says this treatment now is being meted out to Russians peacefully protesting the invasion of Ukraine. He says thousands have been detained, and anyone found to be assisting a foreign country or organization could be imprisoned for up to 20 years.
