National security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters the United States has affirmed Russian forces are committing war crimes in Ukraine but has not yet gathered enough evidence to accuse Moscow of committing genocide.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of committing genocide after Ukrainian forces retook the Kyiv suburb Bucha over the weekend.
“This is something we, of course, continue to monitor every day based on what we have seen so far,” Sullivan said when asked about Zelensky’s comments during Monday’s White House press briefing. “We have seen atrocities. We have seen war crimes. We have not yet seen a level of systematic deprivation of life of the Ukrainian people to rise to the level of genocide, but again, that’s something we will continue to monitor.”
Later in the briefing, Sullivan noted the U.S. is reviewing evidence gathered from journalists in Ukraine and directly from the Ukrainian government and would amend a genocide designation if necessary.
“On this front, President Biden was a leader. He went out and said, ‘Putin is a war criminal,’ and many of you raised your eyebrows with that,” he said. “Now you see the scenes coming out of Bucha today, and so he’s not going to hesitate to call a spade a spade, to call it like he sees it, and neither is the U.S. government.”
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You can watch Monday’s briefing in full below.
